"We have caught them at it!" said he. 'Julian is on top, and Jack is down below, shovelling dirt. Where are your revolvers?"
"Those fellows from the Flat have not come yet," said Jake, looking all around to make sure that the boys were alone. "Lead ahead, Bob, and remember that we are close at your heels."
Leaving his provisions behind him, Bob arose to his feet, stepped out of his place of concealment and advanced toward the pit. Julian was so intent on watching his companion below that he did not hear the sound of their footsteps until they were so close to him that he could not pull his partner up; so he simply raised his head, and was about to extend to them a miner's welcome, when he saw something that made him open his eyes and caused him to stare harder than ever. There was something about that short, fleshy man which he was sure he recognized. It did not make any difference in what style of clothing Claus was dressed in,—whether as a gentleman of leisure or as a miner,—his face betrayed him. He saw that it was all up with him, for he had no time to go to the lean-to after his revolver.
"Pitch that dirt out of the bucket and come up, Jack," called Julian, shaking the rope to attract the attention of his comrade. "Claus is up here."
There was a moment's silence; then Jack's voice came back in no very amiable tones.
"Get away with your nonsense!" he exclaimed. "If I come up there again for just nothing at all, I pity you! If Claus is there, make him show himself."
"Why, he's your uncle," asserted Bob, who began to wonder if that was the first lie that Claus had told them.
"That man?" exclaimed Julian. "Not much, he ain't. Jack, is Claus your uncle?"
"Tell him to come down here and I'll see about it," said Jack, who could not yet be made to see that there was something really going on at the top. "That makes two I have against you, old fellow."
"No, you haven't got anything against me," said Julian. "Here is Claus. Don't you see his face? Any man who would claim such an uncle as that—"