"Let's get busy."
They started out that very afternoon from the corner California John had
showed them. It took all that day and most of the following to define
and blaze the boundaries of the first tract they intended to estimate.
In the accomplishment of this they found nothing out of the ordinary;
but when they began to move forward across the forty, they were soon
brought to a halt by the unexpected.
"Look here!" Bob shouted to his companion; "here's a brand new corner
away off the line."
Elliott came over. Bob showed him a stake set neatly in a pile of rocks.
"It's not a very old one, either," said Bob. "Now what do you make of
that?"
Elliott had been spying about him.
"There's another just like it over on the hill," said he. "I should call
it the stakes of a mining claim. There ought to be a notice somewhere."
They looked about and soon came across the notice in question. It was
made out in the name of a man neither Bob nor Elliott had ever heard of
before.
"I suppose that's his ledge," remarked Elliott, kicking a little
outcrop, "but it looks like mighty slim mining to me!"
They proceeded with their estimating.
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