e credit to his burro, and, if the
truth was known, half the mines in the west would be named after some
knot-headed jackass. That's how much intellect it takes to be a
prospector."

"No, I'll tell you what's the matter with these prospectors," returned
Denver with a miner's scorn, "they do everything in the world but dig.
They'll hike, and hunt burros and go out across the desert; but anything
that calls for a few taps of work they'll pass it right up, every time.
And I'll tell you, old-timer, all the mines on top of ground have been
located long ago. That's why you hear so much about 'Swede luck' these
days--the Swede ain't too lazy to sink.

"That's my motto--sink! Get down to bed-rock and see what there is on
the bottom; but these danged prospectors just hang around the
water-holes and play pedro until they eat up their grub-stakes."

"Heh, heh; that's right," responded Bunker reminiscently, "say, did you
ever hear of old Abe Berg? He used to keep a store down below in Moroni;
and there was one of these old prospectors that made a living that way,
used to touch him up regular for a grub-stake. Old Abe was about as easy
as Bible-Back Murray when you showed him a rich piece of ore and after
this prospector had et up all his grub he'd drift back to town for more.
But on the way in, like all of them fellers, he'd stop at some real good
mine; and after he'd stole a few chunks of high-grade ore he'd take it
along to show to Abe. But after a while Old Abe got suspicious--he
didn't fall for them big stories any more--and at last he began to
enquire just where this bonanza was, that the prospector was reporting
on so favorable. Well, the feller told him and Abe he scratched his head
and enquired the name of the mine.

"'Why, I call it the Juniper,' says the old prospector kind of innocent;
and Abe he jumped right up in the air.

"'Vell, dat's all right,' he yells, tapping himself on the chest, 'but
here's one Jew, I betcher, dat you von't nip again!' Get the point--he
thought the old prospector was making a joke of it and calling his mine
the Jew-Nipper!"

"Yeah, I'm hep," replied Russell, "say who is this feller that you call
Bible-Back Murray--has he got any claims around here?"

"Claims!" repeated Bunker, "well, I guess he has. He's got a hundred if
I've got one--this whole upper district is located."

"What--this whole country?" exclaimed Denver in sudden dismay, "the
whole range of hills--all that lays in the s