"Two drinks and a surfeit of good luck," laughed the clerk. "Well, we'll take him; but you must keep him out of the way. He'll be crazy drunk in less than an hour. Been to supper?" "No." "Better have it sent to your room. He isn't fit to go to the dining-room." "All right; have a bell-boy ready, and I'll knock him down and drag him out, if I can." That was easier said than done. Jeffard found the foolish one in the bar-room, drinking _ad libitum_, and holding forth to a circle of interested hearers. Garvin had evidently been recounting the history of the abandoned claim, and one of the listeners, a hawk-faced man, with shifty black eyes, was endeavoring to draw him aside. He succeeded just as Jeffard thrust his way into the circle, and the self-elected bearwarden caught the whispered question and its answer. "You say you located her two years ago?" queried the hawk-faced one. "No; that's the joke o' the whole shootin'-match,--thess like I was a-tellin' ye." Garvin's speech ran back to its native Tennessee idiom at the bidding of intoxication. "She ain't nev' been located _yit_; and if it hadn't 'a' been for that derned little sharp-eyed pardner o' mine"-- The questioner turned quickly to the bar. "Drinks all round, gentlemen--on me." Then to Garvin in the cautious undertone: "You said she was over in Stray Horse Valley, didn't you?" Garvin fell into the trap headlong. "Not much I didn't! She's a-snugglin' down under one o' the bigges' peaks in the Saguache, right whar she can listen to the purlin' o' the big creek that heads in"-- There was no time for diplomatic interference. Jeffard locked his arm about Garvin's head, and dragged the big man bodily out of the circle. "You fool!" he hissed. "Will you pitch it into the hands of the first man that asks for it? Come along out of this!" Garvin stood dazed, and a murmur of disapproval ran through the group of thirsters. The hand of the hawk-faced one stole by imperceptible degrees toward his hip pocket. Jeffard stopped it with a look. "You have had fun enough with my partner for one evening, gentlemen," he said sternly. "Come on, Jim; let's go to supper." And the thirsters saw them no more. CHAPTER XVII IT was midnight and worse before the lately belted knight of fortune had outworn the hilarious and entered upon the somnolent stage of the little journey insensate, and when the thing could be done, Jeffard put him to bed with a pæan of thanksgiving which was none the less heartfelt for being unvocalized.