"
"And what good is that to us?" asked one of the men contemptuously.
"Good?" repeated Steptoe harshly. "Well, if you're not as d----d a fool
as Marshall, you'll see that if he has struck a lead or vein it's bound
to run across OUR CLAIMS, and what's to keep us from sinking for it as
long as Marshall hasn't worked the other claims for years nor pre-empted
them for this lead?"
"What'll keep him from preempting now?"
"Our possession."
"But if he can prove that the brothers left their claims to him to keep,
he'll just send the sheriff and his posse down upon us," persisted the
first speaker.
"It will take him three months to do that by law, and the sheriff and
his posse can't do it before as long as we're in peaceable possession of
it. And by the time that expert and Marshall return they'll find us in
peaceful possession, unless we're such blasted fools as to stay talking
about it here!"
"But what's to prevent Marshall from getting a gang of his own to drive
us off?"
"Now your talkin' and not yelpin'," said Steptoe, with slow insolence.
"D----d if I didn't begin to think you kalkilated I was goin' to employ
you as lawyers! Nothing is to prevent him from gettin' up HIS gang,
and we hope he'll do it, for you see it puts us both on the same level
before the law, for we're both BREAKIN' IT. And we kalkilate that we're
as good as any roughs they can pick up at Heavy Tree.
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