, and earnestly desired that some one else should furnish the muscle.
He was accustomed to think much more rapidly than the men with whom Birt was associated, and his briskness in arranging the matter had an incongruous suggestion of the giddiness of youth. He said that he would go home with Birt to fetch the spade, and while there he could settle the terms with the boy’s mother, and then they could get to work.
He started off at a dapper gait up the deer-path, while Birt, with his rifle on his shoulder, followed.
A sudden thought struck Birt. He stopped short.
“Now
I
dunno which side o’ that thar lick Nate Griggs’s line runs on,” he remarked.
“Never mind,” said the professor, waving away objections with airy efficiency; “I shall first secure the consent of the owner of the land.”
Birt cogitated for a moment. “Nate Griggs ain’t goin’ ter gin his cornsent ter nobody ter dig ennywhar down the ravine, ef it air inside o’ his lines,” he said confidently, “‘kase I - ’kase he - leastwise, ’kase gold hev been fund hyar lately, an’ he hev entered the land.”
The professor stopped short in the path.