`That last bit'll be easy enough, yu hog,' returned his friend, and with a casual salutation, took his departure just as Tarman, his henchman, Pete, and the marshal came in together. Green had stepped over to the bar and was talking to Silas, to whom he had already confided his rupture with the Y Z, knowing that this would be the speediest way of spreading the version he wished to be known.
`So yu ain't quittin' us for a while,' the bartender remarked. `Goin' to tie up with Leeming?'
The puncher shook his head. `Guess I'll take a holiday,' he said. `Might do a bit o' prospectin' too; there oughta be gold in some o' them creeks towards Big Chief.'
Tarman and his party were beginning a game of cards at a near-by table, and the puncher had spoken loudly enough for the words to reach them. He caught a quick look from the gambler.
`Old Nugget don't seem to find much dust; if he does he spends it somewhere else,' Silas rejoined.
`I've a hunch it's there anyways, an' I might as well give her a trial; I've got all the time there is,' Green said carelessly. He stood watching the play for a while and then went out.
`Huh! Prospectin', eh?' said the marshal, as the door closed behind him. `Reckon he won't get very fat on that. Funny how a busted puncher's thoughts allus turn to gold-diggin'.' `Yu think he meant it then?' asked Poker Pete.
`He said it loud enough.'
`He said it too loud--he meant us to hear. I'll want to see him at work afore I swaller that.'
`Bah! He won't trouble about us, Pete,' Tonk said. `He's through with the Y Z.'
`No doubt o' that,' corroborated Tarman. `I was there this afternoon. He damn near killed Blaynes, an' Petter is mighty sore over it. He'd be a useful man.'
The gambler swore luridly. `I'm agoin' to feed Mister Green to the buzzards,' he said savagely.
`I ain't objectin', Pete,' Tarman observed. `But why not use him first? Think it over.'
The man's voice was quiet, silken almost, but it carried a note of authority to which the gambler offered no further resistance. Tarman smiled. `Get him to the Fort an' put it to him--one o' the boys there can do it, a stranger, o' course. If he throws in, well an' good; if he don't keep him there.'
The emphasis on the last three words brought a meaning smile to the faces of his listeners, and Pete was quick to agree: `Yo're right, Joe, as usual; that's the play to make. I'll put California on the job--he's done some prospectin' in his time, an' he ain't known here.' Tarman nodded his approval, and the game proceeded.
On leaving the Folly, Green went to the store, where he purchased a small hatchet, a miner's pick, a shovel, and a shallow pan for washing dirt. He also replenished his stock of ammunition and tobacco, and laid in a varied assortment of provisions.
'Goin a-travellin'?' asked the storekeeper.
`Takin' a lintle holiday--got sick o' poundin' beasts,' explained the customer. `Got any fish-hooks?'
`Shore I have--if I can find 'em. Yu aimin' to combine business an' pleasure?'
`Yu called it--that's just my idea. When I get tired o' diggin' up nuggets I'll catch me a trout or two for supper.'
`Reckon yu will get more fish than gold,' laughed the old man, `though I dunno why there shouldn't be some good pickin's; it was there once.'
Having arranged for his purchases to be sent to the hotel, the puncher returned there himself, satisfied with the evening's work. He had recognised that some good excuse for his remaining in Hatchett's was essential, and that it must be one that would explain solitary excursions into the surrounding country. So he had made his bluff and with customary thoroughness intended to carry it through. That Tarman was in some way mixed up with the rustling he now felt convinced, and also that it was Laban who had so neatly circumvented the attempt to recover the stolen Frying Pan herd.
Broad smiles broke out on the faces of early risers in Hatchett's next morning when they saw a cowboy riding slowly along the street upon a pony whose air was clearly one of chastened disgust at being festooned with the unusual implements which constitute the impedimenta of a prospector. Green returned the smiles and replied in kind to the various jocular greetings. He welcomed these effusions, for they signified that he was being taken seriously. Two miles out of town he had an encounter which pleased him still more when Noreen loped round a bend in the trail. He snanched his hat off as she pulled up and surveyed his baggage with patent amusement.
`I'm glad you didn't inflict that on Blue, it would have broken his heart,' she said, and then, her face sobering, `Why have you left the Y Z?'
`Me an' the foreman had an argument,' he replied gravely, but the little crinkles at the corners of his eyes were much in evidence, and she knew that he was anything but downcast. She determined to punish him.
`Dad told me you nearly killed Blaynes,' she said severely. `I'm afraid you're of a quarrelsome disposition--we seem to have had nothing but trouble since you came.'
The reproof did not have the effect she expected, for the recipient grinned widely, and asked, `Yu blamin' me for the rustlin' too?'
`You know I did not mean that,' the girl replied indignantly. `Why do you always put me in the wrong?'
`Must be my quarrelsome disposition,' he returned, and then, noting the expression on her face, added, `I shore am a trouble-hunter, yu see.'
His quizzically woebegone air dispersed her resentment and she smiled as she said, `You have certainly made a lot of enemies. Why don't you go away?'
`Do yu want me to?' he countered.
The blunt question made her hesitate. For some reason which she did not attempt to account for she knew that she would be sorry if he took her advice but, of course, she could not tell him so.
`I am still in your debt, and I naturally do not wish that harm should come to you,' she fenced.
`Yu don't owe me anythin',' he replied. `As for enemies, well I reckon the man who never makes any don't amount to much. I ain't runnin' away.'
`You are risking your life just for a matter of pride?' she queried.
`That, an'--other things,' he smiled. `Yu see, I've a hunch there's a gold-mine around here, an' I aim to locate it.'
Noreen gathered up her reins. She did not in the least believe he was staying to hunt gold, but she knew he would not tell her anything he did not want to--he was not the type.
`I sincerely hope you will be fortunate,' she said.
`Thank you, ma'am, if I get what I'm hopin' for I'll be more than that,' the puncher said, and again there was the look in his eyes which had stirred her pulses once before in the street at Hatchett's. At the touch of the spur her pony jumped forward, and with a wave of the hand she was gone. Green watched until a turn in the trail took her from sight, and then resumed his way.
'She shore didn't want me to clear out, but shucks, there ain't nothin' to that,' he mused. `Reckon if our ears was longer, hoss, we'd make a fair pair o' jackasses, so don't yu go puttin' on any frills either.'
It was towards noon when he reached the blind canyon, for he had travelled by devious ways; it was possible that his movements might be watched and he wished his choice of a locality to commence operations to appear haphazard. Several times during the journey he had paused and investigated certain spots as though considering them. He now did the same as he stood on the bank of the stream, about halfway along the canyon, and then he spoke aloud: `She'll do. I reckon there oughta be colour in them sands, an' there's shore enough trout in the pools below. Anyway, she's a dandy place for a camp.'
He led his horse back to a strip of grass which stretched from the shady bank of the stream to the overhanging cliff which formed one of the walls of the canyon, stripped the animal and tethered it with his rope. Then winh his axe he attacked a nearby thicket and cut a number of light poles. With these, and the strippings from them, he soon erected a lean-to shelter, choosing a spot where the rock-face shelved and formed a shallow cave. In this he deposited his baggage, and having lighted a fire, began to prepare a meal. This despatched, he pottered about the camp making his hut more weatherproof, cutting additional fuel, and gathering spruce-tops for his bed. Presently he took the spade and the shallow pan and went down to the stream to make his first bid for fortune. He found it hard and disappointing work, for no sign of the precious metal rewarded his efforts.