ound
here, ma'am--automobiles?"

"Not exactly," she replied with a frown. "They truck ore and men and
supplies to and from the mine every day. The reason you've seen so few
people to-day is because it's Sunday."

"Thank you," he said gallantly. "That answers my first question. You
remember, I was wondering _two_ things?"

Her lips trembled with a smile, but her eyes flashed with suspicion.

"You will observe, ma'am, that I am not followed by any pack horses or
heavily-laden burros," he went on gravely, although his eyes sparkled
with good humor. "Nor is there anything much to speak of in this
slicker pack on my saddle. I need some new smoking tobacco, some new
shaving soap, some new hair cut, a bath, a dinner, and a bed--after
I've put up my hoss."

This time the girl laughed, and Rathburn was rewarded by the flashing
gleam of two rows of pearls and eyes merry with mirth. But her
reciprocating mood of cheerfulness was quickly spent.

"You are only a mile and a half from High Point," she said hurriedly.
"You can get what you want there."

She retreated into the doorway, and Rathburn saw that the chance
interview was at an end.

"_Gracias_, as they say in the desert country," he said, saluting as
he turned away. "It means thanks, ma'am."

He looked back as he touched the mustang with his steel and saw her
looking after him with a strange look in her eyes.

"That gal looks half like she was scared, hoss," he reflected. "I
wonder, now, if she got me wrong. Dang it! Maybe she thought I was
trying to flirt with her. Well, maybe I was."

He thrust a hand in a pocket and fingered the two objects he had
picked up in the road at the scene of the holdup. Then he pulled his
hat a bit forward over his eyes and increased his pace. The town, as
he had half expected, came suddenly into sight around a sharp bend in
the road.

High Point consisted of some two-score structures, and only a cursory
glance was needed to ascertain that it was the source of supplies and
rendez-vous for entertainment of the several mines and all the miners
and prospectors in the neighboring hills. Several fairly good roads
and many trails led into it, and from it there was a main road of
travel to the railroad on the edge of the desert in the east.

Before he entered the dusty, single street, lined with small buildings
flaunting false fronts, Rathburn recognized the signs of a foothill
town where the hand of authority rested but lightly.

He