an it was," remarked Mr. Baker, after the
outskirts of Bender had been left behind.

"Just what I thought," replied Boylston; "pity he couldn't hev lasted
long enough for us to hev asked him. But I've been a-workin' some sums
about different kinds of cans--I learned how from Phipps, this
afternoon--he's been to college, an' his head's cram-full of sech
puzzlin' things. It took multiplyin' with four figures to git the
answer, but I couldn't take a peaceful drink till I knowed somethin'
'bout how the find would pan out."

"Well?" inquired Mr. Baker, anathematizing a stone over which he had
just stumbled.

"Well," replied Boylston, stopping in an exasperating manner to light
his pipe, "the smallest can a-goin' is a half-pound powder-can, and
that'll hold over two thousand dollars worth--even _that_ wouldn't be
bad for a single night's work--eh?"

"Just so," responded Mr. Baker; "then there's oyster-cans an'
meat-cans."

"Yes," said Boylston, "an' the smallest of 'em's good fur ten thousand,
ef it's full. An' when yer come to five-pound powders--why, one of them
would make two fellers rich!"

They passed quickly and quietly through Greenhorn's Bar. The diggings
at the Bar were very rich, and experienced poker-players, such as were
Twitchett's executors, had made snug little sums in a single night out
of the innocent countrymen who had located at the Bar; but what were the
chances of the most brilliant game to the splendid certainty which lay
before them?

They reached Black Peter Gulch and found Twitchett's hut still
unoccupied, save by a solitary rattlesnake, whose warning scared them
not. Mr. Baker carefully covered the single window with his coat, and
then Boylston lit a candle and examined the clay floor. There were
several little depressions in its surface, and in each of these Boylston
vigorously drove his pick, while Mr. Baker stood outside alternately
looking out for would-be disturbers, and looking in through a crack in
the door to see that his partner should not, in case he found the can,
absentmindedly spill some of the contents into his own pocket before he
made a formal division.

Boylston stopped a moment for breath, leaned on his pick, stroked his
yellow beard thoughtfully, and offered to bet that it would be an
oyster-can. Mr. Baker whispered through the crack that he would take
that bet, and make it an ounce.

Boylston again bent to the labor, which, while it wearied his body,
seemed to excite