"No, you cawnt!" retorted Thompson truculently. "Sit down, boys. Sit down, I say! These gentlemen are my friends. Anything you got to say? If there is, say it. And my name's _Thompson_, if you please." "Aw!--what an _extwemely_ wemahkable ahttitude!" Wyatt fixed his monocle on the offending miner with bland and exasperating condescension. "Weally, you quite intewest me, y' know! I appwoach you, quite civilly, y' know, with an offah decidedly to youah ahdvahntage, Mistah--ah--Tomlinson, and you tweat it----" "_Thompson_!! By Heavens, you say Tomlinson again and I'll pound your face into shape!" roared the misnamed one, jumping up. Mitchell and Loring vainly tried to quiet him. "Weally, I shall be obwiged to wefeh you to my lawyehs----" Wyatt began. "Refer _me_--you animated outrage--you libel! Turn me loose, you fellows! _I_ don't want to see _you_ or your durn lawyers! I know what _you_ want, well enough. You want to bamboozle me into selling my interest in the Copper-bottom for less than it's worth. Here's my last word to you--Mr.--ah--White! If you want my fourth at forty thousand, to-day, all right. It's worth more--it's paid from the grass-roots down. But that'll make me the round six figures, and that's enough. _I_ can make money--_I_ know _my_ little way about," he boasted, with insufferable complacency. "Nobody left me _my_ pile! Put up or shut up!" "Mr. Wyatt," said Mitchell, "pardon me, but may I suggest that you call at a more favorable time?" He made, behind Thompson's back, the motion significant of an emptied glass. "Aw! I see--I _see_! Thawnks awfully for the hint. Good-evening, gentlemen--and--ah--Mistah Tomkins!" Thompson broke away, shaking his fist in Wyatt's face. "Say that again and I'll brain you--pawdon me, I should say, I'll smash your head in. Thompson's my name--T-h-o-m-p-s-o-n, _T h o m p s o n_! And you trade with me, now or never!" "You see, gentlemen?" Wyatt appealed. "Mistah--ah--Tawmson, I offahed you twenty-five thousand on my own wesponsibility, as a--ah--business pwoposition. My--ah--associawates in this undehtaking aw all fwiends, quite congenwial, y' know, and I felt suah they would sanction that. I do not cyah to go futheh lengths without--ah--a confewence with them, as I believe that pwice quite ahmple, y' know. But if I could awwange fo' an option----" "You pay me twenty thousand, cash, in this room, at eight o'clock to-night, and I'll give you an option for one week at forty thousand," persisted the morose miner. "After that, the price goes up." "Fifty pehcentum down on an option! This is uttehly unpwecedented, y' know. I must wemonstwate, weally!" "It's all the option you'll get from me, you jackanapes." He snapped contemptuous fingers under Wyatt's nose.