H. Bedford-Jones

“ An hour afterward, Deadoak was riding up to the shack in the valley, with a fine appearance of just finishing the end of a toilsome journey. A meeting with Sagebrush had afforded him a plan of campaign. He observed Murray sitting before the shack cleaning a revolver, and dismounted with a cheerful greeting; his cheerful expression vanished quickly, however, when Murray pointed the revolver at him and rose, blazing with wrath.
"So you've come to the scene of your crime. Deadoak! Put those hands up—that's right! And stand still—don't back away; you've nowhere to back." ”

“ We're not interested in that, however; ruby silver is what'll make us sit up! Time for that in the morning."
Murray viewed the interior of the shack, and declared for sleeping in the open air.
They were up and about by sunrise. Murray was cool and rather sardonic in regard to the whole affair, but Mackintavers was cheerful and blithe as any boy of a prospector on his first search for earth-gold. The sight of that glittering silver ore, that wondrous ruby silver ore whose arsenic had ruined many a man and whose silver content had made thousands rich, was like a tonic in the blood of Sandy. ”

“ Dejectedly, hopelessly, Deadoak stumbled to his cayuse, pulled himself aboard, waved a limp hand, and rode down the valley. He was slumped in the saddle like a man who sees no hope in the future.
"He's mighty cheerful over something," said Murray drily, and chuckled.
"Cheerful?"
"Well, Sandy, suppose you elucidate? Why did you turn him down?"
Sandy faced his friend and made a wide gesture. "Murray," he said earnestly, "I'm playin' a hunch. Why should that fellow come here and make us an offer? I don't know—but there was something behind it. We've got something that somebody wants. ”