Cash and Bud
dumped all the gold into a pan, and weighed it out on the little
scales Cash had for his tests. It was not a fortune, as fortunes
go. It was probably all the gold Nelson had panned out in a
couple of years, working alone and with crude devices. A little
over twenty-three hundred dollars it amounted to, not counting
the nuggets which Lovin Child had on the bunk with him.
"Well, it's a start for the kid, anyway," Bud said, leaning
back and regarding the heap with eyes shining. "I helped him find
it, and I kinda feel as if I'm square with him now for not giving
him my half the claim. Twenty-three hundred would be a good price
for a half interest, as the claims stand, don't yuh think, Cash?"
"Yeah--well, I dunno's I'd sell for that. But on the showing
we've got so far--yes, five thousand, say, for the claims
would be good money. "
"Pretty good haul for a kid, anyway. He's got a couple of
hundred dollars in nuggets, right there on the bunk. Let's see,
Lovins. Let Bud have 'em for a minute."
Then it was that Lovin Child revealed a primitive human trait.
He would not give up the gold. He held fast to one big nugget,
spread his fat legs over the remaining heap of them, and fought
Bud's hand away with the other fist.
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