By noon they had agreed that Bud should go along and help relocate the widow's claim.
Cash Markham hinted that they might do a little prospecting on their own account.

It was a country he had long wanted to get into, he said, and while he intended to do what Mrs.Thompson had hired him to do, still there was no law against their prospecting on their own account.

And that, he explained, was one reason why he wanted a good man along.
If the Thompson claim was there, Bud could do the work under the supervision of Cash, and Cash could prospect.
"And anyway, it's bad policy for a man to go off alone in this part of the country," he added with a speculative look across the sandy waste they were skirting at a pace to suit the heavily packed burros.

"Case of sickness or accident--or suppose the stock strays off--it's bad to be alone." "Suits me fine to go with you," Bud declared.

"I'm next thing to broke, but I've got a lot of muscle I can cash in on the deal.