"This is a miners' meeting," he stated briefly. "And we have several things to talk about. Most important thing, 'cordin' to my notion, is this row about that big nugget. Seems these yere three men, whose names I disremember, is partners and is panning down there in the lower diggings, and while one of them is grubbing around with a shovel getting ready to fill the company pan, he sees this yere nugget in the shovel, and annexes it. Now he claims it's his nugget, and the rest of 'em claim it belongs to all of them as partners. How about it?" Two men sprang to their feet and began to talk. "You set down!" Semple ordered them. "You ain't got nothing to do with decidin' this. We'll let you know what to do. If the facts ain't right, as I stated 'em, say so; but we don't want no theories out of you. _Set down!_ I say." They subsided, and a silence fell which no one seemed inclined to break. "Well," said Semple impatiently, "come on! Speak up! Whar's all this assorted lot of theories I been hearing in the say-loons ever since that nugget was turned up?" A man with the most extraordinarily ragged garments got to his feet and began to speak in a pleasant and cultivated voice. "I have no solution to offer this company," said he, "but I am, or was, a New York lawyer; and if my knowledge of partnerships will help any, this is the New York law." He sketched briefly the New York rulings on partnerships, and sat down. "Much obliged, I'm sure," said Semple cordially. "We're glad to know how they've figgered it out down thar. Only trouble, as far as I see, is that they ain't usually findin' many nuggets down that neck of the woods; so they ain't precisely fitted the case. Anybody know anything nearer to home?" "I panned in Shirttail Bar last two months," blurted a hoarse and embarrassed individual, without rising, "and down thar they had a reg'lation that airy nugget that weighs over a half ounce that is found before the dirt is thrown in the cradle belongs to the man that finds it, and not to the company. Of course this here is a pan, and not a cradle." "That's more like business. Anybody know if anywhar they do it the other way around?" Apparently nobody did. "Anybody got any idees as to why we shouldn't follow Shirttail in this matter? Dog-gone you! _Set down!_ You ain't got nothin' to say here." The man appealed to the crowd. "Ain't I got a right to be heard in my own case?" he demanded. "This ain't your case," persisted John Semple stoutly; "it's decidin' what the policy of this camp is goin' to be regardin' nuggets. Your dog-gone case is mighty unimportant and you're a prejudiced party. And if you don't set down, I'll come down there and argue with you! If none of you other fellows has anything to say, we'll vote on it." We then and there decided, almost unanimously, to follow Shirttail.