“And your weak point to defend your friends, eh, Mayne? There, I will not be hard upon him. Talk in whispers, and keep on the qui vive; we must not be surprised. Are you very tired?”
“Not at all now,” I said. “I don’t want to go to sleep.”
“Then we’ll discuss the position, Mayne. Hist!”
We listened, but the faint crack we heard was evidently the snapping of a stick in the fire, and Mr Gunson went on.
“Now, Mayne,” he said, “after years of such toil as few men have lived through, I have found wealth. No, no, don’t you speak. Let me have the rostrum for awhile.”
He had noted that I was about to ask him a question, for it was on my lips to say, “How did you get to know of this place?”
“I am not selfish or mad for wealth,” he continued. “I am working for others, and I have found what I want. In a few months, or less, I shall be a rich man again, and you and your friends can take your share in my prosperity. That is, if I can hold my own here till law and order are established. If I cannot hold my own, I may never have another chance. In other words, if those scoundrels oust me, long before I can get help from the settlement they will have cleared out what is evidently a rich hoard or pocket belonging to old Dame Nature, where the gold has been swept. Now then, for myself I am ready to dare everything, but I have you two boys with me, and I have no right to risk your injury, perhaps your lives. What do you think I ought to do?”
“Stand your ground,” I said, firmly. “I would.”
I said this, for I had a lively recollection of the cowardice these men had displayed, both at the Fort and here, as soon as they had been brought face to face with the rifles.
Gunson grasped my hand and pressed it hard.