Dan Anderson straightened up as though smitten, his face a dull red.  The dancing heat mist blurred before his eyes.  He said nothing.  They turned presently and strolled down toward the foot of the arroyo.  Barkley pushed his hat back on his furrowed forehead.

“There is a lot in this thing for me, Andersen,” said he, “and there’ll be a lot in it for you.  Have you got any claims of your own in here?  Mineral, I mean?”

“Of course,” Dan Anderson replied.  “We all have claims.  This is the only valley in the West, so far as I know, where there is good coal on one side, and paying gold quartz on the other.  But that’s the case here.  We haven’t overlooked it.”

Barkley whistled.  “I wouldn’t ask a better show than you’ll have here,” said he, contemplatively.  “The only wonder to me is that some one hasn’t broken into this long ago.”

“There might be some few difficulties,” suggested Dan Anderson.

“Difficulties!  What do you care about that?  We’ll wear ’em out, pound ’em out, break ’em up, I tell you.  We’re the first ones to find this country—­”

“Except maybe Coronado, De Vaca and Company.”

“Who were they?”

“The same as you and me,” replied Dan Anderson, enigmatically.  “Ask the mountains.”

“Oh, rot!” said Barkley.  “I’ll tell you, once for all, I’m not interested in dreams or foolishness.  Now, if you want to go in with us, that’s one thing.  If you don’t, we want to find it out mighty quick.”

“You might do worse,” said Dan Anderson.  “The other lawyer is worse than myself.  At times I suspect him of being lazy.”

“Well, well, let’s get together,” urged Barkley, impatiently.  “Now, Grayson thinks it will take about three hundred and fifty acres for the first plat, without additions; we’ll supersede the old Jack Wilson patent.  He’s dead, you say?  Never left a will, or any heirs?  Never did get his town site platted and filed?  Well, he never will, now.  You go with Grayson to-morrow and run out these lines quietly, and help him get an idea of the best mining claims on both sides of the valley, too.  There’ll be plenty for you to do.”

Dan Anderson nodded, but made no comment.  Many things were revolving in his mind.

“Meantime,” concluded Barkley, “I’ve got to get back down the line to meet Mr. Ellsworth.  We’ll come up again.  You can readily see that we’ve got to have a town meeting before very long.  Get things in line for it.  Will you attend to this?”

“Yes,” replied Dan Anderson, slowly and musingly; “yes, I’ll attend to it.”

Barkley looked once more upon the impassive face of his local counsel, and departed more than ever puzzled and exasperated.  He liked Dan Anderson as little as he understood him.  “I’ll handle him, though,” he muttered to himself.  “There’s a way to handle every man, and I rather think that this one’ll come to his feed before we get done with him.”