t of him.

"You've got us," he croaked. "Here's your checks. Give me the water."

"In proper and legal form, please," said Average Jones.

He produced a contract and a fountain-pen. The contract was duly
signed and witnessed. It provided for the transfer of the water, in
consideration of one revolver and ten thousand dollars in checks. These
checks were endorsed over to A. V. R. E. Jones, whereupon he turned over
the pail of water and the largest canteen to the parched miners. Then,
sorting out the checks, he pocketed two aggregating five thousand
dollars, tore up three, and holding the other in his hand, turned to
Captain Funcke.

"Will five hundred dollars pay you for keeping young Hoff down here a
couple of months and making the beginning of a man of him?" he asked.

"Yes, and more," replied the captain.

"It's a go," said Average Jones. "I'd like to make the job complete."

Then, courteously bidding the North Pinto Gold Mining Company farewell,
the two water-dealers clambered up the rocks and disappeared beyond the
abrupt sky-line.

Once again Doctor Conrad Hoff sat in the private office of Average
Jones, Ad-Visor. The young man was thinner, browner and harder of fiber
than the Jones of two weeks previous. Doctor Hoff looked him over with
shrewd eyes.

"Say, your trip ain't done you no harm, has it?" he exclaimed with a
boisterous and false good nature. "You look like' a fightin'-cock. Hope
the boy comes out as good. You say he's all right?"

"You've got his letter, in which he says so himself. That's enough
proof, isn't it?"

"Oh, I've got the letter all right. An' it's enough as far as it goes.
But it ain't proof; not the kind of proof a man pays out reward money
on," he added, cunningly. "You say you left Roddy down there with that
Funcke feller, hey?"

"Yes. It'll make a man of him, if anything will. I threw that in as an
extra."

"Yes; but what about them two crooks that goldbricked him? What's become
of them?"

"On their way to Alaska or Bolivia or Corea, or anywhere else, for all I
know--or care," said Average Jones indifferently.

"Is that so?" The quack's voice had taken on a sneering intonation.
"You come back here with your job not half done, with the guilty fellers
loose an' runnin', an' you expect me to pay over, the five thousand
dollars to you. Huh!"

"No, I--er--don't expect--er--anything of the sort," said Average Jones
slowly.

Doctor Hoff's little, restless eyes puckered at