Then he switched it in the air, struck his bootleg smartly with it, said roughly: "Come, let's get to work!" and strode away.
Meantime Barker on his way to Boomville was no less singular in his manner.

He kept up his slightly affected attitude until he had lost sight of the cabin.

But, being of a simple nature, his emotions were less complex.

If he had not seen the undoubted look of affection in the eyes of his partners he would have imagined that they were jealous of his good fortune.

Yet why had they refused his offer to share it with him?
Why had they so strangely assumed that their partnership with him had closed?
Why had they declined to go with him?
Why had this money--of which he had thought so little, and for which he had cared so little--changed them toward him?
It had not changed HIM--HE was the same! He remembered how they had often talked and laughed over a prospective "strike" in mining and speculated what THEY would do together with the money! And now that "luck" had occurred to one of them, individually, the effect was only to alienate them! He could not make it out.