"Jest wait till that boy gets a bag of dust," said a miner, when the colonel had narrated the second wonder. "The express agent'll be here next week to git what fellers wants to send to their folks—the boy'll want to send some to his'n—his bag'll be missin' 'bout then—jist wait, and ef my words don't come true, call me greaser."
The colonel pondered over the prophecy, and finally determined on another vigil outside Grump's hut.
Meanwhile, Grump's Pet, as Mix had been nicknamed, afforded the camp a great deal of amusement. He was not at all reserved, and was easily drawn out on the subject of his protector, of whom he spoke in terms of unmeasured praise.
"By the piper that played before Moses," said one of the boys one day, "ef half that boy sez is true, some day Grump'll hev wings sprout through his shirt, an' 'll be sittin' on the sharp edge uv a cloud an' playin' onto a harp, jist like the other angels."
As for Grump himself, he improved so much that suspicion was half disarmed when one looked at him; nevertheless the colonel deemed it prudent to watch the Pet's landlord on the night preceding the express day.
The colonel timed himself by counting the games of old sledge that were played. At the end of the sixth game after dark he made his way to Grump's hut and quietly located himself at the same crack as before.
The Pet and his friend were both lying down, but by the light of the fire the colonel could see the eyes of the former were closed, while those of the latter were wide open. The moments flew by, and still the two men remained in the same positions, the Pet apparently fast asleep, and Grump wide awake.
The interior of a miner's hut, though displaying great originality of design, and ingenious artistic effects, becomes after a time rather a tiresome object of contemplation. The colonel found it so, and he relieved his strained eyes by an occasional amateur astronomical observation. On turning his head, with a yawn, from one of these, he saw inside the hut a state of affairs which caused him to feel hurriedly for his pistol.
Grump had risen upon one elbow, and was stealthily feeling with his other hand under the Pet's head.
"Ha!" thought the colonel; "right at last."