"He's glum as a fish. Every feller who goes in wants to know where Gus is, an' he keeps out of sight all that's possible."
"Have you seen Mr. Wright to-day?"
"No; but I heard he an' that lawyer of yours had a long chin about the business. Say, Bill, by the time you get out of this scrape you'll owe a pretty penny for law, I reckon. Why don't you try to make the company pay it?"
"We can stand the racket, an' won't ask a soul to help us."
"Somebody must have died an' left you a pile, for men that work at Farley's don't often have enough to pay big lawyers for runnin' around."
"It'll be all right, Donovan, so don't worry about that."
But the mine boss did worry. He failed to understand how Bill and Joe could incur such expense with any prospect of paying it, and when he left the house it was to discuss the matter in all it's bearings with a select few of his particular friends.
The superintendent did not consider it worth his while to call; but on the following morning Joe received a note to the effect that if he intended to return to the mine, it would be to his advantage to resume his work at once.
"Tell Mr. Wright that I've got through with his company, an' he can put a man in my place whenever it suits him," the miner said to the messenger, and the latter had hardly reached the store before a workman from Blacktown arrived with the startling intelligence that the four who had been accused of the robbery had purchased a large tract of land on the mountain, and were about to open a mine.
This news was so wonderful that one of the loungers volunteered to walk to the town for the sole and only purpose of learning if it was really true.