d fro across the table in the flow of conversation--"Over in the
Panamint." "Just going down for a rodeo in the Panamint." "Panamint
brands." "Has a range down in the Panamint." Then by and by the remark,
"Hoh, yes, Gold Gulch, they're down to good pay there. That's on the
other side of the Panamint Range. Peters came in yesterday and told me."

McTeague turned to the speaker.

"Is that a gravel mine?" he asked.

"No, no, quartz."

"I'm a miner; that's why I asked."

"Well I've mined some too. I had a hole in the ground meself, but she
was silver; and when the skunks at Washington lowered the price of
silver, where was I? Fitchered, b'God!"

"I was looking for a job."

"Well, it's mostly cattle down here in the Panamint, but since the
strike over at Gold Gulch some of the boys have gone prospecting.
There's gold in them damn Panamint Mountains. If you can find a good
long 'contact' of country rocks you ain't far from it. There's a couple
of fellars from Redlands has located four claims around Gold Gulch. They
got a vein eighteen inches wide, an' Peters says you can trace it for
more'n a thousand feet. Were you thinking of prospecting over there?"

"Well, well, I don' know, I don' know."

"Well, I'm going over to the other side of the range day after t'morrow
after some ponies of mine, an' I'm going to have a look around. You say
you've been a miner?"

"Yes, yes."

"If you're going over that way, you might come along and see if we can't
find a contact, or copper sulphurets, or something. Even if we don't
find color we may find silver-bearing galena." Then, after a pause,
"Let's see, I didn't catch your name."

"Huh? My name's Carter," answered McTeague, promptly. Why he should
change his name again the dentist could not say. "Carter" came to his
mind at once, and he answered without reflecting that he had registered
as "Burlington" when he had arrived at the hotel.

"Well, my name's Cribbens," answered the other. The two shook hands
solemnly.

"You're about finished?" continued Cribbens, pushing back. "Le's go out
in the bar an' have a drink on it."

"Sure, sure," said the dentist.

The two sat up late that night in a corner of the barroom discussing
the probability of finding gold in the Panamint hills. It soon became
evident that they held differing theories. McTeague clung to the old
prospector's idea that there was no way of telling where gold was until
you actually saw it. Cribbens had evidently