it back! If the law could avail him, well and good! If
not, he'd make a law!

McCoppet he knew for a thief--a "law-abiding" criminal of the subtlest
type. Bostwick, he was certain, was a crook. Behind these two lay
possibilities of crime in all its forms. That suddenly ordered survey
of the line was decidedly suspicious. Bostwick and his fiancee had
come prepared for some such coup--and money was a worker of miracles
such as no man might obstruct.

Van became so loaded full of fight that had anyone scratched a match
upon him he might have exploded on the spot. He thought of the
simplest thing to do--hire a private survey of the reservation line,
either to confirm or disprove the work that Lawrence had done, and then
map out his course. The line, however, was long, surveyors were fairly
swamped with work, not a foot could be traveled without some ready cash.

He went to Rickart of the bank. Rickart listened to his plan of
campaign and shook his head.

"Don't waste your money, Van," he said. "The Government wouldn't
accept the word of any man you could hire. Lawrence would have to be
discredited. Nobody doubts his ability or his squareness. The
reservation boundary was wholly a matter of guess. You'll find it
includes that ground--and the law will be against you. I'd gladly lend
you the money if I could, but the bank people wouldn't stand behind me.
And every bean I've got of my own I've put in the Siwash lease."

Van was in no mood for begging.

"All right, Rick," he said. "But I'll have that line overhauled if I
have to hold up a private surveyor and put him over the course at the
front of a gun." He went out upon the street, more hot than before.

In two days time he was offered twenty dollars--a sum he smilingly
refused. He was down and out, in debt all over the camp. He could not
even negotiate a loan. From some of his "friends" he would not have
accepted money to preserve his soul.

Meantime, spurred to the enterprise by little Mrs. Dick, old
Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave accepted work underground and began to
count on their savings for the fight.

At the "Laughing Water" claim, during this period, tremendous elation
existed. Not only had three lines of sluices been installed, with
three shifts of men to shovel night and day, but a streak of gravel of
sensational worth had been encountered in the cove. The clean-up at
sunset every day was netting no less than a thousand dollars in go