How did it figger ?" "To the best of my belief," said Tom, "an assay is as much unable to figure as it is to read." "Don't waste any more time on the kid, Dolph," growled another of the group.

"He won't tell you anything that you want to know." "If he doesn't" rejoined Gage, "maybe he'll miss something.

See here---Reade's your name, isn't it ?" "You've got that much of your information straight," assented Tom, looking up with a smile.
"Well, Reade, maybe you'd better be a bit more polite and sociable.
You've missed staking this claim, but I think we can fix it to give you a job here as engineer." "That would be very kind of you, I'm sure," nodded Tom.

"But I can't undertake any work for you." "Then you'll lose some money." "I'm used to losing money," smiled Tom.

"As for my partner, he's a real wonder in the way of losing money.