Gregory was now very different in appearance from that same gulch into which the Extra Limited had entered about a month ago. It resembled a noisy, booming new town. Almost every foot of lower ground was occupied. A great deal of the timber had been cut from the and slopes, to be used in cabins and and for fuel; and the axes were merrily ringing, in with the staccato of hammers and the thud of picks.  
More families had arrived, so that women were frequently seen, and some of the cabins looked exceedingly "homey." There were many more grocery stores and general supply stores, in tents or log buildings. Where Editor William Byers' tent had stood, half-way up the gulch, town lots for the new Central City had been staked out and were selling as high as $500 apiece!
 
Flour was $20 a sack of 100 pounds, eggs were $2.50 a dozen, and milk fifty cents a quart. But money was very cheap, and prices seemed to cut little figure, for were not men digging, digging, digging, and emptying their dirt into rockers, or carrying it in gunny sacks and in sleds over pine-trunk tracks, to their sluices, and washing out the dust (some of them) to the amount of $200 a day?
 
At night the hundreds of camp fires lighted the gulch redly from side to side; and already there had been a great forest fire, on the new trail in from the Platte, which had burned to death three men and a dog.
 
The trail itself was lively, said George, with gold-seekers still into the mountains, singing, "I'm bound to the land of gold," and under Table Mountain had been started, on Clear , a town named "Golden City." It contained about thirty cabins and nearly a thousand people, living in the cabins or camping!
 
And Denver and Auraria were booming, also.
 
Amidst such apparent prosperity it did seem as though persons anxious to work could find work that would pay. But the trouble was that Gregory Gulch had become over-populated. The newcomers asserted that the old-timers, like the Gregory crowd, had located too much ground, and that the claims ought to be cut down from one hundred feet to twenty-five feet, so as to give more people a chance. This movement did not prove out, because when a miners' meeting was held, to make changes in the regulations, the old-timers put in their own men as officers and won.
 
Consequently, what with the high prices of food and , and the many claims that yielded scarcely anything, and the constant rush to get other claims wherever possible, a lot of people were glad to turn their hands to any kind of work.
 
Terry and George tramped clear up the gulch, inquiring at and rocker and hole, and even at tents and cabins.
 
"Need any help?" Or: "Do you know of a job we can get?" Or: "Could you use a couple of husky boys around here?"
 
Some parties were so busy that they only shook their heads, without pausing. Others directed them on, or to right or left. But after having volunteered in vain as miners, carpenters, and even as wood-choppers, they reached the head of the gulch, and turned back.
 
"Well, guess we'll go down to the other end," sighed Terry.
 
"This sure is a tough proposition," said George, using professional language. "Anyway, we've got enough to live on for a day or two, haven't we? Wonder when 'll be back."
 
"He won't come back till he has Duke; you can depend on that. Maybe he hasn't money enough."
 
"He can borrow from the folks."
 
"He won't, though. He'd rather work and earn some more."
 
"You can sell your mine, can't you, if you have to?" asked George. "He said sell it. And we can sell the True Blue. I'd as lief."
 
"We gave it to Virgie," reminded Terry.
 
"Aw, she wouldn't care. It's no good, is it? It doesn't own any water."
 
"Well, 'tisn't as good as the Golden Prize," admitted Terry. "Maybe we'll sell the Golden Prize and find something better. But I'd like to wait till Harry comes. I'd hate to sell it to that Pine Knot Ike gang."
 
"They offered you $100, though, didn't they?"
 
"Y-yes," admitted Terry. "It's better than nothing, of course."
 
They two (for Shep had been left to guard the cabin) were their steps by a slightly different route down the opposite side of the gulch, so as not to miss any chances, and now came upon the wheel-barrow man.
 
"Why, hello, young Pike's Peak Limited," he greeted. "How's the gold-seeking business?"
 
"We're not gold-seeking, we're job-seeking," explained Terry. "Do you know of a job for a couple like us?"
 
The wheel-barrow man appeared to have packed up. His blanket roll and a fry-pan and tin cup were laid ready in front of his closed cabin.
 
"What's the matter? Didn't your pan out?" he .
 
"We haven't any water, so we quit. Then I worked for Pat Casey, and he quit, and we can't even sell pies," confessed Terry.
 
"Where's your other partner?"
 
"He went down to Denver and Auraria, to buy our back. They're trying to match Duke against a bear."
 
"Pshaw! That so? I'm going down to Denver myself, to look about in time before snow flies. I understand it begins to snow up here in September, and everybody'll be driven out."
 
"What'll you do with your mine? You've got one, haven't you?" asked George.
 
"Sure pop, young man. And it's recorded, too, on the district books; and if anybody jumps it while I'm gone there'll be a heap of trouble for him. It's in black and white, described according to miners' law. Say—if you boys really want to work, you go on to Gregory Point, near the mouth of the gulch, and maybe you can get a day's work, or several days' work, on the new church they're putting up there for a preacher."
 
"Come on, George," bade Terry. And—"Much obliged," he called back. "Where's your wheel-barrow?"
 
"Played out at last. Don't need it, anyway. Can carry all I've got on my back."
 
"What's 'recorded'?" queried George, as they hurried off. "Are our claims recorded?"
 
"Don't think so," Terry. "Nobody told us to record 'em. They're ours, and we've been sitting on them right alone. I'll ask Harry when he comes back."
 
"Or we can ask Pat Casey," proposed George.
 
They did not find Pat. His pit was idle and he was away—hunting witnesses to the sale by which he had bought the prospect. But they found the church, or rather the site of the church, on Gregory Point, as that was called, near the mouth of the gulch. Already a platform like a floor had been constructed; several men were busy hauling logs and leveling the ground with spades for another building; and the Yale preacher from the True Blue claim had his sleeves rolled up and was working with the rest. It was to be his church!
 
He warmly welcomed Terry, and shook hands with George also.
 
"Yes, indeed; plenty of work here," he jubilated—and Terry's heart beat expectantly. "We need strong arms. Bring along ax and spade, and pitch in. But," he added, "everything is donated, of course. The , material, ground—all is a gift to help the good cause. The people in the gulch are generous, and their payment will come in this opportunity regularly to worship God instead of always worshipping gold. They can't live in a fashion without a church. So the quicker we have such a p............