Surely the two miners wouldn't fight.

Perhaps another miner of loose character would come along and try to jump their claim, or attempt some dirty work with the little girl.

Something like that.

He carried with him the picture of the homey little ulterior, the fireplace with its cooking utensils, the two bunks with their ample stock of blankets--the crude door closed with a wooden bar and a leather latch-string, which hung trustfully outside.
In other circumstances--chiefly those in which Merton Gill had now been the prominent figure in the film world he meant one day to become--he would on this night have undoubtedly won public attention for his mysterious disappearance.

The modest room in the Patterson home, to which for three months he had unfailingly come after the first picture show, on this night went untenanted.