ides, you'll have to go
down and straighten up things with the Gold Commissioner."

Devine made a sign of concurrence. When he had staked off the claims
with Weston he had been more concerned about tracing the lode than
anything else, and it had not occurred to him that they might be
contested, as it certainly should have done. As the result of this, he
had neglected one or two usual precautions, and when he filed his
record he had not been as exact as was advisable in supplying bearings
that would fix the precise limits of the holdings.

"Yes," he said, "now that I've made a second survey, I'll take the
back trail in a day or two. The stakes are planted just where they
should be, but the description I gave the Commissioner wasn't quite as
precise as I should have made it; and, as the thing stands, I'm not
sure we'd have much to go upon if anybody pulled up our stakes and
swung our claim a little off the lode. Anyway, I don't quite see why
the Commissioner shouldn't pass my survey to count for assessment
work."

The firelight fell on Saunders' face, and he looked thoughtful. Though
the thing is by no means common, claims have been jumped in that
country--that is, occupied by men who surreptitiously or forcibly oust
the rightful owner on the ground that he has not done the work
required by law, or has been inaccurate in his record.

"I guess you'd better go down to-morrow when the boys come up," he
said. "It's a fact that Van Staten went over to Cedar to see the Gold
Commissioner, and from what one of the boys told me he had quite a
long talk with him. Van Staten's straight, but it would be part of his
duty to examine our record and mention it to the people who sent him
up to investigate." He paused and spread out his hands. "I wouldn't
stake my last dollar on the honesty of any of them."

"The boys would start when they got the news you sent them," said
Devine.

Saunders smiled ruefully. He felt reasonably certain that every man in
the settlement would abandon his occupation when he heard the message
they had sent by an Indian they met on the trail soon after they
started. Saunders, it must be admitted, had not sent it until Devine
insisted on his doing so, for, as he shrewdly said, there was not a
great deal of the lode that could be economically worked available,
and he wanted to make quite sure that the Grenfell properties were on
the richest of it, while the boys would be better employed working on
their ran