"But there ain't no sense in it," protested the guide, his voice
shaking with emotion. "You don't need me."

"We need a man of your kind, Jim," Tom rejoined, resting a very
friendly hand on the guide's shoulder. "Listen to me. Hazelton
and I are engineers first of all. We'd sooner be engineers than
kings. Now, the lure of gold is all well enough, and we're human
enough to like money. Yet a really big engineering chance would
take us away from a gold mine almost any day in the year. Eh,
Harry!"

"I'm afraid it would," confirmed Hazelton.

"If we left a paying mine, Jim, what would we want?" Tom continued.
"We'd want an honest partner, wouldn't we---one whom we could
leave for six months or a year and still be able to depend on
getting our share of the profits of the mine. You've gambled
in the past, Jim, but you stopped that years ago. Now you're
honest and safe. Do you begin to see, Jim Ferrers, where you
come in? Another point. How old do you take us to be?"

"Well, you're more than twenty-one, each of you," replied Ferrers.

"Not quite, as yet," Tom answered. "So, you see, in order to
take out a claim we'd need a guardian, and one whom we could depend
upon not to rob us. Jim, if we're to take up a mine we must have
a third man in with us. Do you know a man anywhere who'd use
us more honestly than you would?"