He was acquainted with the restlessness which usually impels the average westerner to throw up ranch or business and strike into the bush when word of a new mineral find comes down, though much is demanded of those who take the gold trail, and, as a rule, their gains are remarkably small.
"Whom did you leave to run the store ?" asked Saunders.
"Nobody," said Jim.

"Except two Siwash, there was nobody in the settlement; and, anyway, the store was most empty when the boys came along." He indicated the strangers with a wave of his hand.

"As they hadn't a dollar between them I told them I'd give them credit, and they could pack up with them anything they could find in the place." Saunders appeared to find some difficulty in preserving a befitting self-restraint, but he accomplished it.
"What did you do with the money you'd taken already ?" was his next question.
"Wrapped it up in a flour-bag," said the man from Okanagan, cheerfully.

"Then I pitched the thing into an empty sugar-keg.

Wrote up what the boys owed you, and put the book into the keg too.