The richer humor of Jessie's retort had thrown him into convulsions of laughter.
"And now SHE says, wot's the use o' the gold without the flume?
'Xcuse me, ladies, but that's just puttin' the hull question that's agitatin' this yer camp inter two speeches as clear as crystal.

There's the hull crowd outside--and some on 'em inside, like Fairfax, hez their doubts--ez says with Miss Christie; and there's all of us inside, ez holds Miss Jessie's views." "I never heard Mr.Munroe say that the flume was wrong," said Jessie quickly.
"Not to you, nat'rally," said Dick, with a confidential look at Christie; "but I reckon he'd like some of the money it cost laid out for suthin' else.

But what's the odds?
The gold is there, and WE'RE bound to get it." Dick was the foreman of a gang of paid workmen, who had replaced the millionaires in mere manual labor, and the WE was a polite figure of speech.
The conversation seemed to have taken an unfortunate turn, and both the girls experienced a feeling of relief when they entered the long gulch or defile that led to Indian Spring.

The track now becoming narrow, they were obliged to pass in single file along the precipitous hillside, led by this escort.

This effectually precluded any further speech, and Christie at once surrendered herself to the calm, obliterating influences of the forest.