res encircling it; a group which
presently strung itself out in Indian file on a diagonal course up to
our gulch. The early-morning investigators were taking the plainly
marked wagon trail in reverse, and Barrett turned to me with a brittle
laugh.

"That settles it, Jimmie. The secret is out, and in another half hour
we'll be fighting like the devil to keep those fellows from relocating
every foot of ground we've got. Let's go back and get ready for them."

XVI

In the Open

Though there was between twenty and thirty thousand dollars' worth of
high-grade ore lying unguarded in the broken-down wagon two miles
below, we promptly forgot it. Losing no minute of the precious time,
we hastened to restake our claim, marking the boundaries plainly and
putting up "No Trespass" notices to let the coming invaders know that
we were alive and on the job. We knew very well that our boundary
lines would be disregarded; that in striving to cover every foot of the
unclaimed fragments of the original triangle, the excited gold-seekers
would overlap us in all directions. But we meant to have the law on
our side.

Our next move was a hurried covering of the shaft mouth with planks
provided for just such an emergency; this and a barricading of the
shack against a possible rush to loot it. By working fast we were
ready by the time the vanguard of the rush appeared as a line of
toiling climbers at the foot of the gulch. Barrett glanced at his
watch.

"The early trolley will be just about leaving Bennett Avenue with the
day-shift for the Ohio," he announced. "One of us must catch that car
back to town to start a string of freight teams up here with men and
material. Minutes now are worth days next week. I'm the freshest one
of the bunch, and I'll go, if you two fellows think you can hold your
own against this mob that is coming. You won't have to do any
fighting, unless it's to keep them out of our shaft. Let them drive
their stakes wherever they like, only, if they get on our ground, make
your legal protest--the two of you together, so you can swear straight
when it comes into the courts."

We both said we would do or die, and Barrett struggled into his coat
and fled for the trolley terminal a mile away. He was scarcely out of
sight over the crest of the spur when the advance guard of the mob came
boiling up out of the gulch. A squad of three outran the others, and
its spokesman made scant show of ceremony.

"