“Hope I didn’t mix yore inside geography too much,” Baldy asked him.
“I’m all right. The docs say the inside of a stagecoach is first rate for the inside of a man,” Hugh answered.
“Tha’s right, too—for a well man; but they don’t say it’s a sure cure for one the Injuns have been playin’ with, do they? Well, so long, young fellow. Don’t you let that rip-snortin’ brother o’ yours c’rupt you none.”
CHAPTER V
SCOT PASSES THE HAT
Through the throngs that crowded, not only the dilapidated sidewalks, but also the street itself, Scot guided his brother deftly toward the hotel. The whole appearance of the place was still higgledy-piggledy. Men lived in tents, in dugouts, in prospect holes, in shacks built of dry-goods boxes, canvas sacks, and brush. They cooked and ate as best they could, while they went about their business of prospecting or buying and selling “feet”[[4]] in what by courtesy were called mines.
[4] In Virginia City mining interests were then sold by feet, and not by shares.—W. M. R.
“We’ll cut across this lot,” the gambler suggested.