w.

"You are one of us, Jimmie," he declared. "If you've got a blood
quarrel with somebody, it's our quarrel, too: we're partners. Isn't
that right, Gifford?"

"Right it is," nodded the carpenter.

"We are not partners to that extent," I objected. "If I should tell
you all the circumstances, you might both agree with me that I may be
obliged to kill this man; but on the other hand, you--or a jury--would
call it first-degree murder; as it will be."

Barrett looked horrified, as he had a perfect right to.

"You couldn't do a thing like that!" he protested.

"Yesterday I should have been just as certain as you are that it was
beyond the possibilities; but now, since last night, it's different.
And that is why I say you ought to fire me. You can't afford to carry
any handicaps; you need assets, not liabilities."

Gifford got up and went to sit on the doorstep, where he occupied
himself in whittling thin shavings of tobacco from a bit of black plug
and cramming them into his pipe. Barrett accepted this tacit
implication that he was to speak for both.

"If you pull out, Jimmie, it will be because you want to; not because
anything you have said cuts any figure with us. And whether you go or
stay, there will be two of us here who will back you to the limit.
That's about all there is to say, I guess; only, if I were you, I
shouldn't be too sudden. Take a day to think it over. To-morrow
morning, if you still think it's the wise thing to do--the only thing
to do--we'll write you a check, Gifford and I, for your share in the
bank account; and after we get going we'll make such a settlement with
you for your third as will be fair and just all around."

This put an entirely new face upon the matter. I hadn't dreamed of
such a thing as standing upon my rights in the partnership.

"Like the mischief, you will!" I retorted. "Do you think I'm that kind
of a quitter?--that I'd take a single dollar out of the Little
Clean-up's war chest? Why, man alive! my only object in getting out
would be to relieve you two of a possible burden!"

Barrett's smile was altogether brotherly. "It's the only way you can
escape us," he averred; and with that the dissolution proposal was
suffered to go by default.

There were half a dozen stragglers to come lounging over the spur or up
the gulch that Sunday afternoon, sharp-set, eager-eyed prospectors,
every man of them, and each one, we guessed, searching meticulously for
the myster