Jake seemed to be turning a problem heavily in his mind. "I like you fellows," he said at length, "and I make you a special price. Usual I get seven dollars a day an' found fer drivin', an' fifty dollars for locatin'. That's fer each gent. Now I calls you two boys one gent an' makes you the same price--seven bones an' a grub-stake whether we hit oil or not, an' fifty plunks extra if we do. An' we will. No question about that. I know two claims that's jus' sittin' up an' yelpin' fer you lads to come along." We withdrew and talked the matter over for a few minutes. In spite of Jake's unprepossessing appearance and boastful language there was something appealing about him. He threw out a bluff, frank, independent suggestion of friendliness which reacted readily upon us, and he looked like a man who knew the country. We returned presently with our minds made up. "We'll take your offer, Mr. ----" Jack commenced. "Jake," he interrupted. "No mister." "All right, Jake, we'll take your offer. When do we start, what do we take, and where do we go?" Jake looked interrogatively at the morning sun. Then, "Had breakfast?" he demanded. "No." "Well, fill up. You must be feelin' pretty well bored out after your trip. I'll start get the outfit together. I got a team of buckskins that's tougher than Little Eva in an Uncle Tom's Cabin show, an' a democrat bone-shaker that scuds across the prairie like the shadow of a cloud." (He had his poetic turns, had Jake). "I got a tent, but you'll need your own blankets. After breakfast we'll go over to a store an' buy a lay-out o' grub." "How long will we be away?" "Well, nat'rally we have to figger on driving out a good spell. Ain't no free land nowhere close to a city, a C-I-T-Y"--he spelled it out, with a whimisical mixture of pride and ridicule--"like this. Now I've a spot in my mind I think'll suit you boys right down the calf of the leg. It'll take us about three days to go, an' a day to look it over, an' three days to come back, which knocks the hell out o' a week, don't it? An' it might be longer." "You see, we have our sisters here. We have to give them some idea----" "Sisters!" Jake exclaimed, evidently in some panic. "They ain't goin' along?" "No. They'll stay here until we get settled." "That's all right, then," said Jake, visibly relieved. "Well, you tell 'em a week or ten days." We related the morning's transactions to the girls, who accepted the situation with resignation, as it had been agreed that they would stay in Regina while we did our prospecting. They would at once set about to find cheaper lodgings, or a couple of rooms where they could keep house; they insisted that they were quite able to shift for themselves. They would leave word of their new location at the hotel.