could tell you anything worth knowing, but there ain't a day when you
couldn't meet men here who have either been there themselves or have
heard tell of it from men who have."

"Are the natives friendly now?" Tom asked. "In a letter he wrote two
years ago to us, my uncle said that he should put off going to a part of
the country he wanted to prospect until the Indians were quiet."

"The darned critters are never either friendly or quiet. A red-skin is
pizen, take him when you will. The only difference is, that sometimes
they go on the war-path and sometimes they don't; but you may bet that
they are always ready to take a white man's scalp if they get a chance."

"Well, I am very much obliged to you for your advice, which I will
certainly take; that is, I will not decide for a few days, and will come
in here and talk to the miners and learn what I can about it."

"You can hear at once," the landlord said. He stepped back into the
saloon, and said to the two men with whom he had been talking: "Boys,
this young chap is a Britisher, and he has come out all the way to join
Straight Harry, who is an uncle of his. Straight Harry is with Ben
Gulston and Sam Hicks, and they are prospecting somewhere west of the
Colorado. He wants to join them. Now, what do you reckon his chances
would be of finding them out and dropping in on their campfire?"

The men looked at Tom with open eyes.

"Waal," one of them drawled, "I should reckon you would have just about
the same chance of getting to the North Pole if you started off on foot,
as you would of getting to Straight Harry with your hair on."