The boys waited for him to speak first.
“Well,” he said finally, removing his hat and slapping the dust from his legs, “I see the ranch is still runnin’.”
“Just about,” Teddy answered. “How’s your cousin?”
“Better in health, worse in spirits,” Pop replied. “He got taken over the ropes for plenty, that bird did.”
“How much?” Bug Eye asked eagerly.
“Just twenty thousand dollars’ worth of nuggets,” Pop drawled.
“Twenty thousand!” Roy repeated. “What a haul!”
“An’ that’s at gov’ment valuation. He had his own testin’ apparatus, an’ a accurate scale. Knew just how much his nuggets were worth. Now he’s lying’ with a hole through his neck an’ twenty thousand gone,” Pop finished bitterly.
“Tough luck, all right,” came from Teddy in a sympathetic tone. “Bet he worked hard for ’em, too.”
“Well, as to that, there’s two ways of lookin’ at it. He stuck at that camp till he made his strike, an’ that took two years. On the other hand, he didn’t have no trouble at all in pickin’ up the nuggets.”