"No, no, don't have any trouble," she pleaded, as she clung to the trader. "For my sake, daddy, sit down." Then she whispered fiercely into his ear: "Can't you see he's trying to make you fight? There's too many of them. Wait! Wait!"
Burrell attempted to speak, but Stark, who was presiding, turned upon him fiercely:
"Now this is one time when you can't butt in, Mr. Soldier Man. This is our business. Is that plain?"
The Lieutenant realized that he had no place in this discussion, and yet their move was so openly brazen that he could restrain himself with difficulty. A moment later he saw the futility of interference, when Stark continued, addressing the trader:
"This isn't aimed at you in particular, Gale, nor at your girl, for a motion to disqualify her isn't necessary. She isn't old enough to hold mining property."
"She's eighteen," declared the trader.
"Not according to her story."
"Well, I can keep her claims for her till she gets of age."
"We've just fixed it so you can't," grinned Runnion, cunningly. "No man can hold more than one claim on a creek. You voted for that yourself."
Too late, Gale saw the trick by which Stark had used him to rob his own daughter. If he and his two friends had declined to be a part of this meeting, the others could not have held it, and before another assembly could have been called the creek would have been staked from end to end, from rim to rim, by honest men, over whom no such action could pass; but, as it was, his own votes had been used to sew him up in a mesh of motions and resolutions.