Even in the short time that they had been absent the had improved—for now on Gregory Point stood the preacher's church. However, they might not stop to congratulate him and to explain why they had not helped. All this fuss and in Gregory diggin's seemed small business to anybody who knew just where not merely one pound a day but several pounds a day were to be made easy.  
"If hasn't come we'll sell to the Ike crowd, anyway," declared Terry.
 
"He told us to—he said we might, if we needed it. Then one of us can back to that other gulch and the other can stay for Harry," planned George.
 
"Somebody's there, all right. The chimney's smoking."
 
"Must be Harry getting breakfast."
 
"Jiminy Christmas, though!" cried Terry, as now they neared the cabin. "What's going on? Looks as if he'd brought in my dad and your dad, and they're working the claims!"
 
Sure enough: the had been moved and in another direction, water was pouring from the lower end again, and two figures were busy beside it, with spade and pick.
 
"Well, they won't want to work it long, when they know what we know," vaunted George.
 
The two figures were engaged across from the cabin, shoveling and pecking, stooped over, and did not notice the Jenny . So the home-comers aimed straight for the cabin, and were just about to to surprise Harry, when Harry stepped out. But no, not Harry!
 
It was Pine Knot Ike! He emptied a dish-pan of water, and surveyed Terry, George, Jenny and Shep. They stopped short and surveyed him.
 
"Say! What are you doing in that cabin?" accused Terry, so much that his voice cracked on him.
 
"Those aren't our dads, either, over there," whispered George.
 
"I air livin' hyar, I reckon, but 'tain't your cabin," replied Ike, calmly, and chewing his tobacco.
 
"I'd like to know why it isn't our cabin, and our land, too!" retorted Terry.
 
"'Cause you moved off an' we moved on. When one party doesn't develop a , an' doesn't record it, an' quits, an' another party takes it up an' perceeds to develop, I reckon fust party loses out," drawled Ike.
 
"But it is recorded. We recorded it before we left. And the only reason we didn't develop it was because you took our water," furiously answered Terry. "And we didn't move off. We went away for a day or two, that is all."
 
"That's right," George. "I heard him tell the recorder. And you'd better move off, yourselves, or we'll have you put off!"
 
Pine Knot Ike squirted a stream of tobacco juice.
 
"Waal, now, the books don't show," he asserted. "We're hyar, with our improvements, workin' a claim that looked to be abandoned, an' I reckon that'll count. We take our water off an' what's your prospect wuth to you, anyhow?"
 
"He's a big ," whispered George.
 
"We want to sell, though," reminded Terry. Ike seemed to be giving them the opportunity. So—"It's worth more than nothing, just the same," he replied. "That's our cabin and our sluice and our ground. You needn't think you can come over and jump things this way. We've got plenty of friends right in this gulch, and down at Denver, too."
 
"Reckon that sort o' talk doesn't amount to much. Possession air nine points o' the law, young feller," Ike. "I air a man o' peace, but when anybody says 'fight,' I can riz on my legs as quick as ary b'ar."
 
"You won't amount to much, either," accused Terry, with sudden thought, "after I tell people how you got that Injun head and how you shot your own barrel full of holes, and how you skedaddled out of that tent in Auraria and how Harry made you dance at Manhattan last summer!"
 
Pine Knot Ike stared and glared and .
 
"Mebbe you know somethin' an' mebbe you don't," he admitted. "But I air a man o' peace an' so air my pardners. To save hard feelin's, an' argufyin', how'll you sell what you call your rights in this hyar property, dust paid down on the spot?"
 
"We'll sell for a hundred dollars," offered Terry.
 
"Whar's your pardner—that feller?"
 
"He'll be here; but he told me I could sell. Didn't he, George?"
 
"Yes, he did. I heard him. He said to sell if we wanted to," confirmed George.
 
"Whoop-ee!" summoned Ike, to the two men at the sluice. They dropped their tools and crossed over. One was the giant, before encountered. With an occasional side glance at George and Terry, they and Ike consulted together in low tones for a minute or so. Ike disappeared into the cabin, came out and, advancing a few steps, tossed a limp buckskin bag at Terry.
 
"Thar's your hundred dollars in dust," he said, "'cordin' to agreement. You stick your name an' your pardner's on a bill o' sale, an' that other boy'll be witness, an' no hard feelin's."
 
"How do we know this is $100?" challenged Terry, suspicious, and resolved upon being businesslike. One hundred dollars they had to have. But what luck!
 
"Take it to some scales and weigh it, and have it to, fust, then," rapped the giant. "You won't find us gone when you come back. We're hyar to stay."
 
That sounded like a fair proposition.
 
"We can get it weighed at a store," prompted Terry to George. "Come on."
 
"Quick work, boy!" praised George, as with Shep and with Jenny (who had been ............