"As I was saying just after you arrived," began Mr. Phipps—
"Hark! What was that?"
Tad raised a hand for silence.
"I heard nothing."
"It was somebody shouting, I am sure," answered Tad in a voice of tense expectancy. "Yes, there it is again."
"You're right," answered the miner, springing up and hurrying to the door.
The shouting now became general all up and down the street.
"What is it?" asked Tad.
"I don't know. Seems to be a party coming into the camp. It's Munson, that's who it is. There are two people with him on foot. I can't make them out in the twilight. Come on, we'll hurry down and find out what the uproar is about."
Instinctively Tad and Tom Phipps set off at a jog-trot, followed more leisurely by Stacy Brown.