--lent it--gave some away and--saved a little."

"Probably you'll do the same with this. You're a good fellow, Jim."

"But this nugget means a lot of money. Between six and seven thousand
dollars."

"You won't need advice how to spend it, even if it was a million....
Tell me, Jim, how'd you strike it?"

"Funny about that," replied Cleve. "Things were poor for several days.
Dug off branches into my claim. One grew to be a deep hole in gravel,
hard to dig. My claim was once the bed of a stream, full of rocks that
the water had rolled down once. This hole sort of haunted me. I'd leave
it when my back got so sore I couldn't bend, but always I'd return. I'd
say there wasn't a darned grain of gold in that gravel; then like a fool
I'd go back and dig for all I was worth. No chance of finding blue dirt
down there! But I kept on. And to-day when my pick hit what felt like a
soft rock--I looked and saw the gleam of gold!... You ought to have seen
me claw out that nugget! I whooped and brought everybody around. The
rest was a parade.... Now I'm embarrassed by riches. What to do with
it?"

"Wal, go back to Montana an' make thet fool girl sick," suggested one of
the men who had heard Jim's fictitious story of himself.

"Dug or stole is all the same!" boomed the imperturbable Gulden.

Kells turned white with rage, and Cleve swept a swift and shrewd glance
at the giant.

"Sure, that's my idea," declared Cleve. "I'll divide as--as we planned."

"You'll do nothing of the kind," retorted Kells. "You dug for that gold
and it's yours."

"Well, boss, then say a quarter share to you and the same to me--and
divide the rest among the gang."

"No!" exclaimed Kells, violently.

Joan imagined he was actuated as much by justice to Cleve as opposition
to Gulden.

"Jim Cleve, you're a square pard if I ever seen one," declared Pearce,
admiringly. "An' I'm here to say thet I wouldn't hev a share of your
nugget."

"Nor me," spoke up Jesse Smith.

"I pass, too," said Chick Williams.

"Jim, if I was dyin' fer a drink I wouldn't stand fer thet deal," added
Blicky, with a fine scorn.

These men, and others who spoke or signified their refusal, attested to
the living truth that there was honor even among robbers. But there was
not the slightest suggestion of change in Gulden's attitude or of those
back of him.

"Share and share alike for me!" he muttered, grimly, with those great
eyes upon the nugget.

Kells, with an agile bound, r