“Oh, no; nothing of that sort. I have been tending strictly to business. At the suggestion of Mate Hodge, I gathered up in Cottonwood, Central Butte, Stoddard, Bigbug, Cherry and elsewhere a score of hale and hearty laborers and piloted them safely to the valley, where they now are. He then sent me hither for supplies and other needed articles. I have secured half a dozen more good men, who will journey with us to the valley.”
“Now, Wiley,” said Frank, “tell me about these men you say you have engaged. What sort of men are they?”
“They are charming,” assured the sailor. “You remember your Terrible Thirty.”
“Yes.”
“Well, they are men of the same class. They are the real thing.”
“But I am afraid such men are not just what we want, cap’n.”
The sailor looked surprised.
“Why not?” he questioned.
“What we need are miners, not fighting men. It happened that I was able to control the Thirty, and they proved valuable to me at that time. You remember that as miners I couldn’t retain one of them. You say you have picked up some more men here?”
“Sure, sure.”