el leading to the shaft where he knew the men
were working.

"Marley!" he called down the shaft.

"What is it?" came up from below in a surly tone.

"You have allowed the waste to run into the tunnel again, and my cabin
is flooded."

"Well, clean it out then!"

"I think that is your business," answered the dry cutting tones from
above. "Come up at once, and see to it."

"I'm not going to swab out your blasted, dirty old cabin," shouted
Marley hoarsely from the bottom of the shaft. "Do it yourself."

A strange look came over Talbot's quiet face. It whitened and set in the
darkness. He knew his men were gathered about Marley, listening to what
passed, and this open defiance of his authority, this public insult
before them, angered him excessively. He made his answer very quietly,
however, only his voice was peculiarly hard, and the words seemed to
drop like ice on the men standing listening below.

"I allow no one to speak to me like that here," he said. "This is the
last day that you work on the claim."

"I'll work here as long as it suits me," retorted Marley, with an oath.
"You can't turn me out."

"We will see about that," returned Talbot, in the same even, frigid
tone, and he turned away from the pit and walked back to his flooded
cabin.

He found Denbigh had arrived there. It was close to the luncheon hour by
this time, and he was doing what he could to get rid of the water. He
looked up, and saw at once from the other's face there had been some
unusual incident.

"What's up?" he inquired, standing still, with his mop in his hand.

"That fellow Marley is making all the trouble he can," returned Talbot.
"I have just told him he has got to get out, that's all."

Denbigh's face fell. "I think it's a bad job," he remarked after a
minute. "You know what a desperate devil he is; he would kill you, I
believe, if he had to give up his work."

"Well, he has been trying to boss this business for some time now,"
returned Talbot, "and I am tired of it. To-day he finished with a gross
insult before a lot of the men, and it's time, I think, to show him and
them who is boss here."

"Couldn't you overlook it?" replied Denbigh, tentatively, with a scared
look on his thin face.

"I have no wish to," replied Talbot, coldly. "There is bound to be
trouble some time. It may just as well come now as later."

Denbigh opened his mouth to make a further protest, but Talbot stopped
him.

"Don't let us discuss it any