Neither was he taking breakfast.
"I'll bet the skunk has grabbed the nugget and cleared out," exclaimed Bickford, in a tone of conviction.
"Did you hear or see anything of him during the night ?" "No--I slept too sound." "Is anything else taken ?" asked Joe.

"The bag of dust------" "Is safe.

It's only the nugget that's gone." The loss was quickly noised about the camp.

Such an incident was of common interest.

Miners lived so much in common--their property was necessarily left so unguarded--that theft was something more than misdemeanor or light offense.