Jim nodded.
"You're right, 'Wizard'," he said. "This is the place we've got to hold."
"And we'd better fortify one end of it, solid, if the worst comes to the worst. Get some of the men to roll bowlders here to make a solid wall."
The boats drew up to the landing-place.
"Hand me one o' them rifles!" suggested one of the twelve men whom Jim had first chosen. "I'm good on the shoot. Them claim-jumpers is only about six hundred yards away. I can hit a runnin' rabbit, at that distance."
"Good enough," agreed the "Wizard," "if you can pot them off, so much the better. They began the trouble and they fired first. Are there any more snipers here?"
Two more of the men professed themselves to be fair shots.
Creeping out of the trench, the three snipers esconsced themselves in cover, leaving only a loophole for their rifles. Presently one, and then another rifle cracked.
Two of the invaders fell.
A volley followed. It pattered harmlessly against the bowlders where the snipers were hidden and passed high over the heads of the rest of the men, safe in the gravel-pit.