re to raise a hand. But I'll fool
you, old-timer; I'll just serve my term out and then--well, I'll get
back my mine."

"Is that a threat?" demanded Murray but Denver only smiled and toyed
with his heavy hammer. "Because if it is," went on Murray, "just for
self-protection, I'll see that you don't get out."

"No, it isn't a threat," answered Denver quietly. "If I wanted to kill
you I'd swing this sledge and knock you on the head, right now. No, I
don't intend to kill you; but a man would be a sucker to play right into
your hands."

"What do you mean?" asked Murray trying to argue the matter, but Denver
refused to indulge him.

"Never mind," he said, "you railroaded me to the Pen', but by grab you
can't get me out. I'll just show you I'm as independent as a hog on
ice--if I can't stand up I'll lay down."

"Then you intend, just to spite me, to remain on in prison when you
might be a free man to-morrow? I can't believe that--it doesn't seem
reasonable."

"Well, I can't stand here talking," answered Denver impatiently and went
off and left him staring.

It certainly was unbelievable that any reasoning creature should prefer
confinement and disgrace to freedom, but the iron had burned deep into
Denver's soul and his one desire now was revenge. He had been deprived
of his property and branded a convict by this man who boasted of his
powers; but, like a thrown mule, if he could not have his way he could
at least refuse to get up. He was down and out; but by a miracle of
Providence, a hitch in the wording of the law, the slave-driver Murray
could not proceed with his chariot until this balky mule got up. Denver
knew his rights as a prisoner of the state and his status before the
law; and bowed his head and took the beating stubbornly, punishing
himself a hundred times over to thwart his enemy's plans. As he worked
on the road old friends came by and tried to argue him out of his mood,
even Bunker Hill suggested a compromise; but he only listened sulkily, a
slow smile on his lips, a gleam of smouldering hatred in his eyes.

So the winter passed by and as spring came on the road-gang drew near to
Murray. From the hills above their camp Denver could see the dumps and
hoists, and the mill that was going up below, and as the ore-trains
glided by on the newly finished narrow-gauge he picked up samples of the
copper. It was the same as his vein, a brassy yellow chalcopyrites with
chunks of red native copper, and he forgot th