and
gravel into a gunny sack, threw the sack as far as he could over the
ledge at the end, where it was not hidden and cluttered with the
cherry-trees and service berries below, and when it stopped rolling, he
carried it the rest of the way. Then he panned it in the little creek,
watching like a hawk for nuggets and the finer gold. It was
back-breaking work, and he felt that he earned every cent he got. But
the cents were there, in good gold, and he was perfectly willing to
work for what he received in this world.

After a couple of weeks he stopped long enough to make a hurried trip
to Hardup, a little town forty miles farther up in the hills. In the
little bank there he exchanged his gold harvest for coin of the realm,
and he was well satisfied with the result. It was not a fortune, nor
was he likely to find one in the hills. But he bought a team, wagon,
and harness with the money, and he had enough left over for a
two-months' grubstake and plenty of Durham and papers and a few
magazines. That left him just enough silver to pay Rattler's bill at
the livery stable. Nothing startling, but still not bad--that wolf-den
find.

He had a lot of trouble getting his wagon to his claim, but by
judicious driving and the liberal use of a log-chain for a rough lock,
he managed to land the whole outfit in the little flat before the cabin
without any mishap. After that he settled down to work the thing
systematically.

One day he would pan the sandy gravel, and the next day he would rest
his back digging post-holes or something comparatively easy. He worked
from daybreak until it was too dark to see, and he never left his claim
except when he went to wash gold up in the gulch. The world moved on,
and he neither knew nor cared how it moved; for the time being his
world had narrowed amazingly. If Billy Louise had not been down there
in that other world, he would scarcely have given it a thought, so
absorbed was he in the delightful task of putting a good, solid
foundation under his favorite air-castle. That fascinated him, held
him to his work in spite of his hunger to see her and talk with her and
watch the changing lights in her eyes and the fleeting expressions of
her face.

Some day he hoped he would have her with him always. He put it
stronger than that: Some day he would have her with him, there in that
little valley he had chosen; riding with him over those hills that
smiled and seemed to stand there waitin