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CHAPTER XXIV.


Something about Barnaby Winthrop


"My uncle a prisoner about ten miles from here?" repeated Allen Winthrop, after Lou Slavin had made his confession.

"Will you shut up?" howled Bluckburn, savagely. "You'll spoil everything."

"An he'll save hisself from bein lynched," added old Ike Watson, suggestively.

"We haven't done anything—you can't hold us," spluttered Bluckburn. He found himself in a bad corner.

"Holding a man a prisoner is nothing, I presume," said Allen, in deep anger. "Go on," he continued to Slavin. "Where is my uncle?"

Thus urged, Lou Slavin blurted out a full confession, telling how Barnaby Winthrop had been followed to San Francisco by Bluckburn, who wanted to learn the secret of the new claim, which Bluckburn realized must be valuable.

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