Roy Norton

“ The prospector deliberated for a moment, as if selecting words.
“The fact is,” he said quietly, “that I've got an idea Burke toted off in a couple of grips the gold that was taken from the Horseshoe pay wagon. I ain't dead positive that he did. I think so. But I've got reasons of my own for wishin' to make sure. The only way I can do it, without tellin' the officers, is to play my own game. The only way I can find out is to keep my eye on Clara Montague. ”

“ Well, they yowled and cussed each other backward and forward until Vance gives in a little bit. He gives Pete a thousand dollars, with the agreement that Pete's to get out of Shingle and never come hack. In the meantime, Vance had got so sore he'd pulled a big gun and laid it on his table while he talked, and, as I didn't want to have a killin' on my hands, I gave up the idea of wallopin' him a few for luck, and sneaked away. Hadn't got back to the path when this Pete comes along, mutterin' to himself, and, sure enough, the next day he sold his place for a hundred dollars and disappeared. ”

“ I was right annoyed. I slipped off my gum boots and follered him, thinkin' to go for Vance as soon as this feller left. I sneaked up to the window, that was wide open, and heard the two of 'em havin' a prodigious row. This visitor had come for money, and it seemed he'd already had quite a lot from Vance, and Vance swore he wouldn't dig up another cent. Then this feller gets hotter and hotter and says: 'If it hadn't been for me and Joe, swearin' to the lies about you locatin' this mine first, you'd never have got it. ”