Jimmy, as Merton lolled idly in the doorway, emptied the blackened coffee pot into the ashes of the fireplace and then proceeded to spoon into the same refuse heap half a kettle of beans upon which the honest miners had once feasted.

The watcher deplored that he had not done more than taste the beans when he had taken his final survey of the place this morning.

They had been good beans, but to do more than taste them would have been stealing.

Now he saw them thrown away and regretted that he could not have known what their fate was to be.

There had been enough of them to save him a day's expenses.
He stood aside as the two boys brought out the cooking utensils, the rifle, the miners' tools, to stow them in a waiting handcart.