The dining-room was a large, flat stone on the very edge of the bluff, sufficiently elevated to command a practically unobstructed view of the distant shaft-house of the "Independence." Hicks brought from the cabin an extra rifle, with belt filled with ammunition, which he gravely held out to the engineer.
"These yere fixings will come in handy pretty soon, I reckon," he remarked significantly, and stood quietly on the edge of the rock, holding a powerful field-glass to his eyes.
"They 've brought ther night-shift up ter the top," he commented finally, "an they 're 'rousin' them others outer ther bunk-house.

Hell 'll be piping hot presently.

'Bout half them fellers are a-totin' guns, too.

Ah, I thought so--thar goes a lad horseback, hell-bent-fer-'lection down the trail, huntin' after more roughs, I reckon.

Well, ther more ther merrier, as ther ol' cat said when she counted her kittens.