"If Harry hasn't come we'll sell to the Ike crowd, anyway," declared Terry. "He told us to--he said we might, if we needed it. Then one of us can rustle back to that other gulch and the other can stay for Harry," planned George. "Somebody's there, all right. The chimney's smoking." "Must be Harry getting breakfast." "Jiminy Christmas, though!" cried Terry, as now they neared the cabin. "What's going on? Looks as if he'd brought in my dad and your dad, and they're working the claims!" Sure enough: the sluice had been moved and slanted in another direction, water was pouring from the lower end again, and two figures were busy beside it, with spade and pick. "Well, they won't want to work it long, when they know what we know," vaunted George. The two figures were engaged across from the cabin, shoveling and pecking, stooped over, and apparently did not notice the Jenny outfit. So the home-comers aimed straight for the cabin, and were just about to whoop to surprise Harry, when Harry stepped out. But no, not Harry! It was Pine Knot Ike! He emptied a dish-pan of water, and surveyed Terry, George, Jenny and Shep. They stopped short and surveyed him. "Say! What are you doing in that cabin?" accused Terry, so much astounded that his voice cracked on him. "Those aren't our dads, either, over there," whispered George. "I air livin' hyar, I reckon, but 'tain't your cabin," replied Ike, calmly, and chewing his tobacco. "I'd like to know why it isn't our cabin, and our land, too!" retorted Terry. "'Cause you moved off an' we moved on. When one party doesn't develop a prospect, an' doesn't record it, an' quits, an' another party takes it up an' perceeds to develop, I reckon fust party loses out," drawled Ike. "But it is recorded. We recorded it before we left. And the only reason we didn't develop it was because you took our water," furiously answered Terry. "And we didn't move off. We went away for a day or two, that is all." "That's right," blustered George. "I heard him tell the recorder. And you'd better move off, yourselves, or we'll have you put off!" Pine Knot Ike squirted a prodigious stream of filthy tobacco juice. "Waal, now, the books don't show," he asserted. "We're hyar, with our improvements, workin' a claim that looked to be abandoned, an' I reckon that'll count. We take our water off an' what's your prospect wuth to you, anyhow?" "He's a big bully," whispered George. "We want to sell, though," reminded Terry. Ike seemed to be giving them the opportunity. So--"It's worth more than nothing, just the same," he replied. "That's our cabin and our sluice and our ground. You needn't think you can come over and jump things this way. We've got plenty of friends right in this gulch, and down at Denver, too." "Reckon that sort o' talk doesn't amount to much. Possession air nine points o' the law, young feller," sneered Ike. "I air a man o' peace, but when anybody says 'fight,' I can riz on my hind legs as quick as ary b'ar."