We have got to have that post shifted before they know we are about." There was no doubt as to who it was that he referred to, and Devine saw Saunders hitch himself forward a little.
"If I'd only three or four ca'tridges!" he said half aloud.
Devine sympathized with him.

His comrade was a very indifferent shot, but it would have been a relief to feel that they had something besides the ax to fall back on as a last resort.

Firearms, as he was aware, are seldom made use of in a dispute in British Columbia, but, for all that, men have now and then been rather badly injured during an altercation over a mineral claim.

At close quarters a shovel or a big hammer is apt to prove an effective weapon.
Then, and neither was afterward quite sure how it happened, Saunders lost his balance and fell forward amidst the fern.

He did not do it noiselessly, and one of the two jumpers sprang backward a pace.
"Somebody in that clump of fern," he said, and then apparently recovered a little from his alarm.