"No," said Hugh, "I guess we won't do that, you boys will have to keep your gold, and if we find any more to-day, why, maybe I'll get a chance at it, but what you found is yours and nobody else's."
"Well, but say, White Bull, you know we've got to be asking questions all the time and got to be told what to do with the dust, for neither of us know enough to get along without help. I think you ought to take your share."
"So do I," said Jack, "and I vote that unless Hugh comes in as a partner, you and I say we won't take any of this gold."
"Well, well," said Hugh, "we ain't got no chance to spend that money now, and we needn't decide right off about this. We can't do nothing with it until we get into the settlements, but when we get there, we better get paper for it, unless Joe would rather have the coin.
"Speaking of coin," he went on. "Did I ever tell you that story about Young Dog's father?"
"No. What was that, Hugh?" asked Jack.
"Why," said Hugh, "a good many years, I don't know how long, nor just where it was, Young Dog's father and some of his young men were off on the war path, and they came across a few white men travelling over the prairie, and they fought them for two or three days, and in the end they killed the last one of them and captured all their stock. They got a few horses and two or three mules, and of course some food and a little clothes and the men's arms. But one of the mules was loaded with four wooden boxes, almighty heavy by what they tell. They couldn't get into them but they broke one of them open with an axe, and saw that the box was full of yellow buttons, and after breaking open each one of the boxes, they saw that each one had nothing in it but these same yellow buttons. But the queer thing about these buttons was, that none of them had eyes on to fasten them to the coat with. So they see they could not be used, and just emptied them out on the prairie and just left them there. Queer, wasn't it?"
Hugh cut tobacco, filled his pipe, lighted it and rode on, while the boys waited for him to finish his story. After a while, as he said nothing, Jack said, "Well, what happened then, Hugh?"
"When?" said Hugh.
"Why, after they went off."