When the actual transaction took place, McTeague had been
obliged to get the money to pay for the mule out of the canvas sack.
Cribbens was with him at the time, and as the dentist unrolled his
blankets and disclosed the sack, whistled in amazement.
"An' me asking you if you had fifty dollars!" he exclaimed. "You carry
your mine right around with you, don't you?"
"Huh, I guess so," muttered the dentist. "I--I just sold a claim I had
up in El Dorado County," he added.
At five o'clock on a magnificent May morning the "pardners" jogged out
of Keeler, driving the burro before them. Cribbens rode his cayuse,
McTeague following in his rear on the mule.
"Say," remarked Cribbens, "why in thunder don't you leave that fool
canary behind at the hotel? It's going to be in your way all the time,
an' it will sure die. Better break its neck an' chuck it."
"No, no," insisted the dentist. "I've had it too long. I'll take it with
me."
"Well, that's the craziest idea I ever heard of," remarked Cribbens, "to
take a canary along prospecting. Why not kid gloves, and be done with
it?"
They travelled leisurely to the southeast during the day, following a
well-beaten cattle road, and that evening camped on a spur of some hills
at the head of the Panamint Valley where there was a spring.
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