knowledge of navigation or sailorcraft has a cinch compared with the tenderfoot who tackles the desert. It has a hundred traps. What do any of you know about Apaches? You had better take a desert-salted prospector along with you. Even then? This Wat Lyman himself didn't go after it because he reckoned it too dangerous a proposition and, just because there are three of you, you think you can blunder through with it—because you want that gold."
"I fancy Lyman exaggerated dangers," said Stone. "I mean present-day dangers. His partners, Dave and Lem, did not go in alone and they did not come out. But the country has become more settled. Geronimo is dead. Lyman couldn't visualize colonists where he once trailed over sand. He lived in his past. The loss of his wife took his mental nerve, though he was physically brave enough. It was hard for him to imagine change. But you've made a good point. To take along a Desert Rat, as you call them. It should not be hard to get hold of one. How about those papers?"
"They're ready. They'll hold, though it was not easy to describe such visionary emoluments. But tying it up with the partnership agreement, by using the same terms regarding the possible profits accruing during partnership, will handle it all right. Get hold of your men and we'll sign up this afternoon. By the way, do you want any money? Glad to grubstake you if you won't take it any other way."
Stone shook his head and laughed.
