"Why, this scheme to beat the perfesser out o' that claim o' his. I was drawed inter it innercent like."
"Yes, you were mighty innocent!" put in Frank scathingly. "You pretended that you had located the professor's claim a long while ago, and that the professor had jumped it. Heppner professed to be a government agent sent here to straighten the matter out, and you were to give Borrodaile a hundred dollars for a quitclaim deed to the mine."
"A hundred dollars?" gasped Blunt. "Great snakes! Why, that claim's worth thousands. The professor stood for that yarn?"
"They had him scared stiff," said Merriwell. "He was signing the deed when I jumped out of the cornfield and grabbed it away from him."
"It was Heppner's doin's," insisted McGurvin. "He was ter gi' me a hundred for helpin' him."
"You were to sign the quitclaim over to him, eh?" asked Blunt.
"That's the how o' it, Barzy. He's a villain, that Heppner person, but I was took in by his wiles."
"How much was Sam to get?" asked Merry.
"He was gittin' another hunderd fer the bag o' samples, an' fer helpin' in other ways."
"And Turkeyfoot?"