e," he said, as though
admonishing Si McGinty; "but we _know_ there's gold just there."

The Colonel and the Boy looked at their claims and felt the pinch of
uncertainty. "What do you want for a share in your claim, Mr.
McGinty?"

"Oh, well, as I say, I'll let it go reasonable to a feller who'd do the
assessment, on account o' my having that other property. Say three
thousand dollars."

The Colonel shook his head. "Why, it's dirt-cheap! Two men can take a
hundred and fifty dollars a day out of that claim without outside help.
And properly worked, the summer ought to show forty thousand dollars."

On the way home McGinty found he could let the thing go for "two
thousand spot cash."

"Make it quarter shares," suggested the Boy, thrilled at such a chance,
"and the Colonel and I together'll raise five hundred and do the rest
of the assessment work for you."

But they were nearly back at Minook before McGinty said, "Well, I ain't
twins, and I can't personally work two gold-mines, so we'll call it a
deal." And the money passed that night.

And the word passed, too, to an ex-Governor of a Western State and his
satellites, newly arrived from Woodworth, and to a party of men just
down from Circle City. McGinty seemed more inclined to share his luck
with strangers than with the men he had wintered amongst. "Mean lot,
these Minook fellers." But the return of the ex-Governor and so large a
party from quietly staking their claims, roused Minook to a sense that
"somethin' was goin' on."

By McGinty's advice, the strangers called a secret meeting, and elected
McGinty recorder. All the claim-holders registered their properties and
the dates of location. The Recorder gave everybody his receipt, and
everybody felt it was cheap at five dollars. Then the meeting proceeded
to frame a code of Laws for the new district, stipulating the number of
feet permitted each claim (being rigidly kept by McGinty within the
limits provided by the United States Laws on the subject), and
decreeing the amount of work necessary to hold a claim a year, settling
questions of water rights, etc., etc.

Not until Glory Hallelujah Gulch was a full-fledged mining district did
Minook in general know what was in the wind. The next day the news was
all over camp.

If McGinty's name inspired suspicion, the Colonel's and the
ex-Governor's reassured, the Colonel in particular (he had already
established that credit that came so easy to him) being triumphantl