Mr. Bell's mouth closed in a firm line and his chin came out in what
Peggy described to herself as "a fighting bulge."
"Yes," he said with characteristic vim, "I have. Steer Wells will not be safe after daylight to-day for the women of the party. Red Bill is dastard enough, through an attack on them, to try to intimidate me. We must shift to try to camp at once."
"But where?"
The question came blankly from Jimsy.
"Here. We have a moderate supply of water and there is feed of a kind. Enough at least to keep the stock alive till our work is completed. You see," he continued, turning to Peggy, "the boys and I have struck a very interesting lead. How far it goes I have no idea, but my mining experience teaches me that it is an offshoot of the mother lode. Until we have tapped that I don't want to file a claim."
Peggy nodded her head sagely.
"I see," she said, "you don't want to file your claim and then have somebody else squat down beside you and win the biggest prize of all."
"That's it exactly," said Mr. Bell, "but the question in my mind is whether I am right in exposing you, Miss Bancroft and Miss Prescott to what may be peril. And yet—"
He broke off and a troubled expression crept over his weather-beaten face.
"And yet," Peggy finished for him, "there's no way for us to go back now without abandoning the mine."