“I am going to pass the night with you, lad,” he said.
“I wish you would, Luke.”
“I want to help you do the honors to my old friend Burns.”
“Perhaps he won’t call.”
“If he knows what’s best for him he won’t, but he will be like the foolish moth, and won’t be contented till he has singed his wings. I will look about me and see where to bestow myself for the night.”
Ernest occupied a bed in the rear of the store, just behind one of the counters. It was near a window in the rear of the building.
“I’ll take that bed, Ernest, and you can find another place.”
“No. I am going to make it easy for my friend, Burns, to get in. Whether he will find it as easy to get out will be another matter.”
Nothing was said to the miners about the presence of a thief in the settlement. At that time there was no toleration for thieves. The punishment visited upon them was short, sharp and decisive. The judge most in favor was Judge Lynch, and woe be to the offender who ventured to interfere with the rights of property.