ig weights on 'em. Ther' ain't goin' to be no chat
nor drink till you weighed in. Then I guess the drink'll be right up
to you."

Beasley's mood changed like lightning. He swung over behind his bar
and dropped to the floor on the other side, his eyes alight, and every
faculty alert for trade.

"Wot's it?" he demanded. "Struck it big?" he went on as the dingy gold
scales were produced from the shelf at the back. Then he laughed
amiably. "It needs to be big, wakin' me in my slack time."

"Oh, it's big enuff," cried Ike confidently, his eager, young, animal
face alight with pleasure.

He watched the other with impatient eyes as he deliberately picked out
the weights. But Beasley was too slow, and, with an impatient
exclamation, he snatched up the biggest of them and set it on the
somewhat delicate scales with a heavy hand.

"Say, you're rapid as a sick funeral," he cried. "I ain't got no time
to waste. What I got here'll need that--an' more. Ther'!"

Beasley's temper was never easy, and his narrow eyes began to sparkle.

"You're mighty fresh," he cried. "Guess I'm----"

But his remark remained unfinished. With a boisterous laugh the boy
flung a small canvas bag on the counter and emptied its contents
before the other's astonished eyes.

"Ther'," he cried gleefully. "I want dollars an' dollars from you. An'
you'll sure see they ain't duds."

Beasley's eyes opened wide. In a moment he had forgotten his
ill-humor.

From the gold spread out before him he looked up into the other's face
with a half-suspicious, wholly incredulous stare.

"You got that from your claim--to-day?" he asked.

"An' wher' in hell else?"

"Sure!" Beasley fingered the precious nuggets lovingly. "Gee! Ther's
nigh five hundred dollars there."

"Fi' hundred--an' more," cried Ike anxiously.

But Beasley's astonishment was quickly hidden under his commercial
instincts. He would have called them "commercial."

"We'll soon fix that," he said, setting the scales.

Ike leant against the bar watching the man finger his precious ore as
he placed each of the six nuggets in the scale and weighed them
separately. He took the result down on paper and worked their separate
values out at his own market prices. In five minutes the work was
completed, and the man behind the bar looked up with a grin.

"I don't gener'ly make a bad guess," he said blandly. "But I reckoned
'em a bit high this journey. Ther's four hundred an' seventy-six
dollars comin'