ould not restrain a shrug of impatience. It was three weeks since
they had met,--three weeks crammed with excitement, energy,
achievement, and fortune to Key; and yet this place and this man were
as stupidly unchanged as when he had left them. A momentary fancy that
this was the reality, that he himself was only awakening from some
delusive dream, came over him. But Collinson's next words were
practical.

"I reckoned that maybe you'd write from Marysville to Skinner to send
for the hoss, and forward him to ye, for I never kalkilated you'd come
back."

It was quite plain from this that Collinson had heard nothing. But it
was also awkward, as Key would now have to tell the whole story, and
reveal the fact that he had been really experimenting when Collinson
overtook him in the hollow. He evaded this by post-dating his
discovery of the richness of the ore until he had reached Marysville.
But he found some difficulty in recounting his good fortune: he was
naturally no boaster, he had no desire to impress Collinson with his
penetration, nor the undaunted energy he had displayed in getting up
his company and opening the mine, so that he was actually embarrassed
by his own understatement; and under the grave, patient eyes of his
companion, told his story at best lamely. Collinson's face betrayed
neither profound interest nor the slightest resentment. When Key had
ended his awkward recital, Collinson said slowly:--

"Then Uncle Dick and that other Parker feller ain't got no show in this
yer find."

"No," said Key quickly. "Don't you remember we broke up our
partnership that morning and went off our own ways. You don't
suppose," he added with a forced half-laugh, "that if Uncle Dick or
Parker had struck a lead after they left me, they'd have put me in it?"

"Wouldn't they?" asked Collinson gravely.

"Of course not." He laughed a little more naturally, but presently
added, with an uneasy smile, "What makes you think they would?"

"Nuthin'!" said Collinson promptly.

Nevertheless, when they were seated before the fire, with glasses in
their hands, Collinson returned patiently to the subject:

"You wuz saying they went their way, and you went yours. But your way
was back on the old way that you'd all gone together."

But Key felt himself on firmer ground here, and answered deliberately
and truthfully, "Yes, but I only went back to the hollow to satisfy
myself if there really was any house there, and if there