ng eyes fixed upon
the golden flood of syrup cooling in the window.

"Though Dawley's is bigger," added Irene.

"Do they make much money?"

"They ought to. Prices are high enough," answered Susie with a
comically grown-up air.

"Most of the miners trade at Dawley's, 'cause he don't hurry 'em so
about paying," said Inez naively. "But the Carsons and Catts and Dr.
Hayes, and those folks buy at Brinkley's, 'cause his stuff is nicer."

"We _did_ trade there," began Irene, but Susie interrupted, "Most of
our stuff comes from Los Angeles now. It's cheaper to trade that way,
and anyhow, papa knows the man real well, and now that he's sick in the
hospital, he doesn't have to worry about pay day all the time, for this
man will wait till he is well enough to work again."

"When is pay day?" casually inquired the man. "I mean how often does
it come?"

"Once a month--the fifteenth."

The stranger's eyes glittered with satisfaction, and he muttered, "The
fifteenth,--that's to-morrow."

"What did you say?" asked Susie.

"I was just thinking," he replied, glancing uneasily from one bright
face to the other to see if any of the children had caught his
indiscreet remark. "By the way, who lives in that little, unpainted
house on the edge of town?" He pointed vaguely over his shoulder, and
the sisters looked at each other in bewilderment.

"The pest house?" suggested Irene.

"The Ramsey place?" said Inez questioningly.

"The haunted house?" ventured Susie. "You see, there are so many
unpainted houses on the edge of town."

"The haunted house!" laughed the stranger incredulously. "Whoever
heard tell of a haunted house in a mining camp!"

"Silver Bow has one," stoutly asserted the twins.

"Where? Which one? I confess I am curious."

"It's the last one on the East End Lode," replied Susie with dignity,
feeling that the reputation of her town was at stake.

"The queer old shack beyond Tabitha's," added Inez.

"There are only three houses in that hollow," explained Irene. "The
Carson's big house, the Catt's littler one, and this haunted house."

"What haunts it?" jeered the man, pushing back from the table and
glancing sharply down the trail toward town.

"A--a ghost," the twins half whispered.

"A man killed himself there once," said Susie.

"Or was murdered," shuddered Inez.

"Or else he just died," put in practical-minded Irene. "Anyway, they
found him there dead."

"And sometimes now folks hear