and
the saloon contained a pleasing variety of consolatory fluids, which
were dispensed by Stumpy Flukes, ex-sailor, and as hearty a fellow as
any one would ask to see.

All thieves and claim-jumpers had been shot as fast as discovered, and
the men who remained had taken each other's measures with such accuracy,
that genuine fights were about as unfrequent as prayer-meetings.

The miners dug and washed, ate, drank, swore and gambled with that
delightful freedom which exists only in localities where society is
established on a firm and well-settled basis.

Such being the condition of affairs at Blugsey's, it seemed rather
strange one morning, hours after breakfast, to see, sprinkled in every
direction, a great number of idle picks, shovels and pans; in fact, the
only mining implements in use that morning were those handled by a
single miner, who was digging and carrying and washing dirt with an
industry which seemed to indicate that he was working as a substitute
for each and every man in the camp.

He was anything but a type of gold-hunters in general; he was short and
thin, and slight and stooping, and greatly round-shouldered; his eyes
were of a painfully uncertain gray, and one of them displayed a cast
which was his only striking feature; his nose had started as a very
retiring nose, but had changed its mind half-way down; his lips were
thin, and seemed to yearn for a close acquaintance with his large ears;
his face was sallow and thin, and thickly seamed, and his chin appeared
to be only one of Nature's hasty afterthoughts. Long, thin gray hair
hung about his face, and imparted the only relief to the monotonous
dinginess of his features and clothing.

Such being the appearance of the man, it was scarcely natural to expect
that miners in general would regard him as a special ornament to the
profession.

In fact, he had been dubbed "Old Scrabblegrab" on the second day of his
occupancy of Claim No. 32, and such of his neighbors as possessed the
gift of tongues had, after more intimate acquaintance with him,
expressed themselves doubtful of the ability of language to properly
embody Scrabblegrab's character in a single name.

The principal trouble was, that they were unable to make anything at all
of his character; there was nothing about him which they could
understand, so they first suspected him, and then hated him violently,
after the usual manner of society toward the incomprehensible.

And on the partic