"I'm telling you why!" cried Gallup. "Look here. Suppose we did that and croaked you and dug a hole and stuck you in. All right. Next thing we pop up with a new gold-mine! And there'll be men to say: 'That ore looks like the ore Mexicali Joe showed that night down to Gallup's house!' And they'll say: 'Where's Joe?' And they'll begin making trouble, all kinds; they'll want to run us out. They'll have us up for killing you. There'll be a lot of talk, and always the chance, as long's we live, they might pin something on us. And what would we make by that sort of work? _Only a one-quarter interest in your diggings!_ Why, man, it ain't worth it! We got too much sense to kill any man for the sake of a little ante like that. Sure, Joe; dead on the level, if you play square with us, we play square with you." Silence again. A longer silence than before. Then, while Joe must have appeared to hesitate, Taggart said abruptly: "And if you don't take our proposition and talk fast and straight, I'm going to _make_ you talk! And then you don't get no thanks but a kick and a get-the-hell-out! That's my way, you little greaser." "Give him time, Jim," pleaded Gallup. "All right!" cried Joe, seeming eager now. "I take the chance! You boys just tell me 'So help me God, I play square!' and I take the chance!" "So help me God!" cried Young Gallup, first of all. "I play square with you, Joe!" And after him, while Joe waited, both Taggart and Cliff Shipton said, with a semblance of deep gravity: "So help me God." "We pardners now? Us four?" demanded Joe. And when he had had his three immediate, emphatic assurances--Deveril misjudged him a fool--Joe began, speaking rapidly: "_Bueno!_ Now we talk. An' in the mornin' we start an' to-morrow I show you! I got the bigges' mine you can't beat in all New Mexico an' Arizona an' Nevada, too! For why I care take on three pardners? I tell you, we got the money to devil-him-up, we all rich like hell!..." "Get going, Joe," growled Taggart. "Where? Down Light Ladies' Cañon, and not more'n three or four miles from Big Pine?" Joe cackled his derision at Taggart's guess. "Me, I fool ever'body!" he said gleefully. "Me, I'm damn smart man, Señor Taggart! Nowhere near Light Ladies'. The other way. We go all day to-morrow, way back up in the mountains. One long, hard day, walkin'. Maybe day an' a half. You know where Buck Valley? All right; you know, on other side, Big Bear Creek? An' then you know, little bit more far, two-t'ree mile, Grub Stake Cañon? You know...." "By the living Lord," broke in Taggart. "That's right square in Bruce Standing's country!" Again Joe cackled.