"Don't be a fool!" some one cried. "What can you do against the crowd?"
"Split open the head of the first who comes within strikin' distance. After that has been done you may manage to get the best of me; but one is sure to go down—which shall it be?"
None of the party cared to prove the truth of Joe's threat, and they fell back a short distance, giving him an opportunity to intrench himself behind the fragments of the camp.
The miner took care to gather the tools around him so they could not be seized in case a sudden rush was made, and then, as he afterward said, "read the riot act" to the trespassers.
Matters were in this condition when Fred and the surveyors arrived.
The carpenters were seated on the ground a short distance away, while Joe remained perched on the ruins of the hut calmly smoking his pipe; but prepared for any attack, however sudden.
"Go back to Blacktown and tell the lawyer to send some officers," the miner cried, "These beauties are countin' on buildin' a house right here, I'll hold 'em off till they can be arrested."
"Oh, yes you will," one of the party shouted. "Wait till the crowd get here from Farley's, an' then we'll see who runs this place."
Joe brandished his axe, as an intimation of what he was prepared to do, and cried to Fred who stood in silent astonishment a few paces away:
"Hurry on, lad, there's no time to be lost!"