You,
Dusty, you don't get anything now. If this big fat slob is going to
claim half my mine, you can _law_ us--he'll have to pay the bills.
Now git, you old dastard, and if you horn in here again I'll show you
where you head _out_!" He waved him away, and Dusty Rhodes slunk
off, for a guilty conscience makes cowards of us all; but Judson Eells
stood solid as adamant, though his lawyer was whispering in his ear.

"Go and see him," nodded Eells, and as Lapham followed Rhodes he turned
to the excited Wunpost.

"Mr. Calhoun," he began, "I see no reason to withdraw from my position
in regard to this claim. This contract is legal and was made in good
faith, and moreover I can prove that I paid out two thousand dollars
before you ever located a claim. But all that can be settled in court.
If you have given Miss Campbell a third, her share is now a sixth,
because only half of the mine was yours to give; and so on with the
rest, though if Mr. Rhodes' claim is valid we will allow him his
original one-third. Now what would you say if I should allow _you_
one-third, of which you can give Miss Campbell what you wish, and I will
keep the other, allowing Mr. Rhodes the last--each one of us to hold a
third interest?"

"I would say----" burst out Wunpost, and then he stopped, for Wilhelmina
was tugging at his arm. She spoke quickly into his ear, he flared up and
then subsided, and at last he turned sulkily to Eells.

"All right," he said, "I'll take the third. I see you've got me
cinched."

CHAPTER VII

MORE DREAMS

In four days time Wunpost had seen his interest dwindle from full
ownership to a mere sixth of the Willie Meena. First he had given Billy
half, then they had each given Rhodes a sixth; and now Judson Eells had
stepped in with his contract and trimmed their holdings by a half. In
another day or so, if the ratio kept up, Wunpost's sixth would be
reduced to a twelfth, a twenty-fourth, a forty-eighth, a
ninety-sixth--and he had discovered the mine himself! What philosophy or
sophistry can reconcile a man to such buffets from the hand of Fate?
Wunpost cursed and turned to raw whiskey. It was the infamy of it all;
the humiliation, the disgrace, the insult of being trimmed by a
lawyer--twice! Yes, twice in the same place, with the same contract, the
same system; and now this same Flip Flappum was busy as a hunting dog
trying to hire one of his partners to sell him out!

Wunpost towered above Old Whiskers, and so