I've been on stampedes where it saved a heap of hard feeling." "I'm agreeable," said Stark.

"Then there won't be any misunderstanding." The others, being likewise old at the game, acquiesced.

They knew that in such cases grave trouble has often occurred when two men have cast eyes on the same claim, and have felt the miner's causeless "hunch" that gold lies here or there, or that the ground one of them covets is wanted by the other.
"I'll hold the straws," said Lee, "and every feller will have an even break." Turning his back on the others, he cut four splinters of varying lengths, and, arranging them so that the ends peeped evenly from his big hand, he held them out.
"The longest one has the first choice, and so on," he said, presenting them to Gale, who promptly drew the longest of the four.

He turned to Doret, but the Frenchman waved him courteously to Stark, and, when both he and Runnion had made their choice, Lee handed him the remaining one, which was next in length to that of the trader.

Stark and Runnion qualified in the order they drew, the latter cursing his evil luck.
"Never min', ole man," laughed Poleon, "de las' shot she's de sure wan." They took up their burdens again, and filed towards the narrow valley that stretched away into the hazy distances..