"
"No. We came up the back trail to please Steptoe, who wanted to see
round the cabin," said Dick, glancing nervously yet with a forced
indifference towards the whiskey which Stacy was offering to the
stranger.
"What yer gettin' off there?" said Steptoe, facing Dick almost brutally.
"YOU know your tangled legs wouldn't take you straight up the trail,
and you had to make a circumbendibus. Gosh! if you hadn't scented this
licker at the top you'd have never found it."
"No matter! I'm glad you DID find it, Dick," said Demorest, "and I hope
you'll find the liquor good enough to pay you for the trouble."
Barker stared at Demorest. This extraordinary tolerance of the drunkard
was something new in his partner. But at a glance from Demorest he led
Dick to the demijohn and tin cup which stood on a table in the corner.
And in another moment Dick had forgotten his companion's rudeness.
Demorest remained by the door, looking out into the darkness.
"Well," said Steptoe, putting down his emptied cup, "trot out your
strike. I reckon our eyes are strong enough to bear it now." Stacy drew
the blanket from the vague pile that stood in the corner, and discovered
a deep tin prospecting-pan. It was heaped with several large fragments
of quartz. At first the marble whiteness of the quartz and the
glittering crystals of mica in its veins were the most noticeable, but
as they drew closer they could see the dull yellow of gold filling the
decomposed and honeycombed portion of the rock as if still liquid and
molten.
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