The Long Chance by Kyne, Peter B. (Peter Bernard), 1880-1957

"But I'm in the party with you. It seems to me that common justice--"

"For goodness' sake, Boston, don't throw up to me the sins of my past. Of course you're in my party. That's my misfortune, not my fault. I observed this little backbone of quartz and asked you to walk over here with me for a look at it. You wouldn't come. You said your foot hurt you. So I came alone. If you had been with me at the time, now, of course that would have been different. But--"

"But I--well, in a measure--why, we're out here together, sort of partners as it were, and--"

"The Lord forgive you, Boston. My partner! You never were and never could be. I'm particular in the matter of partners. All Desert Rats in good standing are. You're the last man on earth I'd have for my partner. A partner shares the expenses of a trip and bears the hardships without letting out a roar every half mile. A partner _sticks,_ Boston. He shares his grub and his money and his last drop of water, and when that's gone he'll die with you like a gentleman. That's what a partner does, but you wouldn't do it."

"Well, I'm entitled to a half interest and I'll see that I get it," shrilled the other furiously. "I'll sue you--"

"How about the Indian?"

"Why, he--he's--"

"Only an Indian, eh? Well, you're entitled to your point of view. Only that mozo and I have slept under the same blanket so often--"

"You can't stop me from staking this claim, too" shouted the Boston man, and shook his skinny little fist under the Desert Rat's nose. The latter slapped him across the wrist.

"Pesky fly" he said.

"You can't stop me, I tell you."

"I can. But I won't. I'm not a bully."

"You think you can beat me out of my rights, do you? I'll show you. I'll beat you out of your half before I'm through with you."

"On whose water!"

The bantering smile broadened to a grin--the graceless young desert wanderer threw back his head and laughed.

"You're such a card, Boston" he chortled. "Such exquisite notions of social usage I have never observed outside the peerage. Really, you shouldn't be allowed to go visiting. You're unmannerly enough to ask for a third helping to cake."

"I insist that I am entitled to a half interest in this claim. As you decline to recognize my rights, I must take the matter in my own hands. I, too, shall stake the claim and endeavor to get my location notice filed in the land office before yours. If you haven't any sense of justice and decency, I have."