"You can draw on 'em for it?"
"For half, at least. You shall have your ten thousand as soon as you rid the Farleys of Cochise and his gang. That was the agreement."
The trader thwacked his beefy hand down on Lennon's shoulder.
"That's a go, pard. I own up honest I figgered your talk of copper was all bunk. But I aim to stand by my bargains. Only you're sure now this here lode ain't no blind, are you? You ain't got that gold mine, too, hiding out hereabouts?"
"I give you my word, Slade, this is the only mine or lode of which I know."
Slade's look was more profane than a spoken curse.
"Huh—another El Dorado lie roped and branded. Only thing to do is to go after that bonus of yours."
"I must take samples and measurements for my report," said Lennon. "The company does not pay for the guesses of its engineers."
None too willingly Slade took the end of the small steel-ribbon engineer's tape that was held out to him. Lennon measured the width of the copper ledges, noted the trend and dip of the immense lode, and calculated its thickness where exposed. Samples were then gathered.
Upon the return down the slide the trader suddenly paused to point at the skull of a half-buried human skeleton.