it--and all the gold you've
took out! And all you take away is your personal effects--and you take
'em and git, right now!"

"Now hold on," said Gettysburg, dazed by what he heard. "I seen that
Government surveyor cuss. He said he was only running out a county
line."

McCoppet took the case in hand, as he halted by the boxes.

"Now, boys, don't waste your time in argument," he said. "You've made
a mistake, that's all. Take my advice and hike to the reservation now,
before the gang stakes everything in sight. You can't go up against
the law, and you've done too much illegal work already."

"Illegal?" cried Napoleon. "You're a liar, Opal. Ain't mad, are you?
I've drunk at your saloon, and you know this claim belongs to Van and
us!"

"Don't I say you've made a mistake?" repeated the gambler. "I don't
hold any feelings about it. Nobody was on for a sure thing about the
reservation line till Lawrence run it out. We had suspicions, from a
study of the maps, but it took the Government surveyor to make the
matter certain. It's a cinch you're on the reservation land. You can
copper all your rights, and play to win the bet this claim belongs to
me--and everything else that's any good. Now don't stop to talk. Go
to Lawrence for Government facts--and git a-going pronto."

Gettysburg was pulling down his sleeves. Old age had suddenly claimed
him for its own. The song had dried from his heart, and the light of
his wonderful youth and hope departed from his eye. Dave was too
stunned to think. All three felt the weight of conviction sink them in
the chilling mire. The survey of the day before made doubt impossible.

Gettysburg looked at the boxes, the pits they had dug, the water
running over the riffles, behind which lay the gold.

"I wish Van was to home," he said. "He'd know."

Their helplessness without the absent Van was complete. In the game of
life they were just old boys who would never become mature.

"Van Buren couldn't do no good," McCoppet assured them. "This ain't a
matter of wrangling or fighting; it's a matter of law. If the law
ain't with us you'll get the property back. Van Buren would tell you
the same. He didn't know the ground was reservation. We give him the
benefit of that. But all the gold you've got on the place you'll have
to leave with me. You never had no rights on the Government preserves,
and I'm here ahead of all the bunch in staking it out at six o'clock,
the legal