“Come, come!” he said finally. “Pull yourself together and answer some more questions. Do you know a man named Shaughnessy, or one named Pinder, or one named MacPharlane?” Ray looked up and appeared perplexed by this line of interrogation as he answered, “Why, yes. I know all three of them. They’re all of them good friends of mine. Mr. Shaughnessy wanted to buy my claim but I wouldn’t sell it at any price he would give. The best he would offer was a thousand dollars. Then Mr. Pinder came and told me confidentially that his ground, which is above mine, was no good and that he was going to sell to Shaughnessy for five hundred and advised me to sell out. After that Mr. MacPharlane came and I didn’t like him quite so well. He told me confidentially that Shaughnessy was a bad man to cross, and said that I ought to make friends with such a man rather than try to go against him in anything he was after, and intimated that Shaughnessy would make trouble for me if I didn’t sell. But of course I didn’t believe that and told him so in mighty plain language. He sort of lost his temper and let it out that the reason Shaughnessy wanted my claim was that he’s got those on both sides of my ground and, as I understand it, wants to get a solid unbroken string of claims which he’s going to sell to some capitalists back East, or make a stock company out of and sell stock; or something like that. But of course one can’t believe anything one hears from a fellow like that MacPharlane. I was too wise for that; and, besides, Shaughnessy doesn’t own them all because Pinder has a lot of ground--which proves that what MacPharlane said was a lie.” David sat with a dry smile on his face as he listened to this, and Goliath merely scowled in open-mouthed astonishment. “Yes, and that’s not all of it, either,” Ray asserted. “Mr. Shaughnessy sent me a letter that I got only yesterday in which he says that he is sorry to hear that I made such an awful blunder--because of course he thinks like every one else does that I’m guilty--but that, notwithstanding my arrest, and knowing that probably I’ll need money to defend myself, he is still willing to pay me a thousand dollars for my claim. You can’t call that unfriendly, can you?” “Oh, no! Not at all!” David said with considerable sarcasm and then, winking over Ray’s head at his partner, got to his feet and said, “Well, Goliath and I must be going now; but all I ask you to do is this, leave things to us and don’t under any circumstances sell that claim unless we tell you to. You’d better give me that letter Shaughnessy wrote--for safe-keeping. I’ll see him in a day or two and may want to talk the matter over with him. I reckon you can trust us, can’t you?” “I’ve heard so much about you two that I’d trust you with my life,” Ray blurted as he produced the letter and handed it to David, who carefully pocketed it.