"And look at his prospecting.

Why, he was out two nights last week, all night, prospecting in the moonlight for blind leads, just out of sheer foolishness." "It was quite enough for me," broke in the Left Bower, "when the other day, you remember when, he proposed to us white men to settle down to plain ground sluicing, making 'grub' wages just like any Chinaman.

It just showed his idea of the Lone Star claim." "Well, I never said it afore," added Union Mills, "but when that one of the Mattison boys came over here to examine the claim with an eye to purchasin', it was the Old Man that took the conceit out of him.

He just as good as admitted that a lot of work had got to be done afore any pay ore could be realized.

Never even asked him over to the shanty here to jine us in a friendly game; just kept him, so to speak, to himself.