He worked then, and talked much with Cash, and
made plans for the development of their mine. In
that month they had come to call it a mine, and they
had filed and recorded their claim, and had drawn
up an agreement of partnership in it. They would
"sit tight" and work on it through the winter, and
when spring came they hoped to have something
tangible upon which to raise sufficient capital to
develop it properly. Or, times when they had done
unusually well with their sandbank, they would talk
optimistically about washing enough gold out of that
claim to develop the other, and keep the title all in
their own hands.

Then, one night Bud dreamed again of Marie, and
awoke with an insistent craving for the oblivion of
drunkenness. He got up and cooked the breakfast,
washed the dishes and swept the cabin, and meas-
ured out two ounces of gold from what they had
saved.

"You're keeping tabs on everything, Cash," he
said shortly. "Just charge this up to me. I'm
going to town."

Cash looked up at him from under a slanted eye-

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