"I suppose you know of such places, Sim?"
"Waal, maybe we do," the miner said cautiously. "Maybe we do; eh, doctor?"
The little man did not reply, but sat looking searchingly at Hugh. When he did speak it was not in direct answer to the question.
"I like your face, young fellow," he said. "It reminds me of one I have seen somewhere, though I can't say where. You look to me as if you were downright honest."
"I hope I am," Hugh said with a laugh.
"You may bet your boots on that," Bill Royce said. "He is as straight a man as you will find in Texas."
"And you are out here," the other went on, "part for pleasure, part just to see life, and part, I suppose, to make money if you see a chance?"
"I have never thought much of making money," Hugh replied, "although I should certainly have no objection if I saw a chance; but I have never thought of doing more than keeping myself."
"And he has been with you, you say, nigh two years?" and he nodded at Royce. "And you can speak for him as he does for you?"
"That I can," Hugh said warmly. "We have worked together and hunted together, we have been mates in the same outfit, and we have fought the Comanches together, and I can answer for him as for myself. He gave up his work and went with me, not because there was any chance of making more money that way than any other, but because we liked each other."