With the first came Bettins. His voice was the
loudest, coming now and then distinctly; he em-
ployed the name of Howard and cursed it; he said
something about his *' pals " Devine and True. A
man to whom he was talking laughed at him. There-
after half a dozen forms swarmed down into the
gulch; the fire on either side of them was dying
out along the gulch's edge ; they cursed its heat when
it offended them, took advantage of its light at all
times, and more like ants than ever appeared to be
running back and forth foolishly and aimlessly. But,
apparently, Bettins got his stakes and his friends'
back and the men with whom he had returned
hastily staked out their own claims, all feverishly and
by crude guesswork. There was perhaps not a man
among them who knew the first thing about mining.
Helen watched them in sheer fascination. Down

206



A Town Is Bom

there half in lighti half in shadow, darting this way
and that, they were like little gnomes playing some
wild game of their own.
