ast, "why don't you
go out and find one for yourself? I suppose you want to rush in and
claim a half interest in his strike and then sell out to old Eells. I
hope he kills you, if you try to do it--_I_ would, if I were him.
What'd you do with that five thousand dollars?"

"Eh--eh--that's none of your business," bleated Dusty Rhodes, whose trip
to Los Angeles had proved disastrous. "And if Wunpost gave Hungry that
sack of ore he stole it from some other feller's mine. I knowed all
along he'd locate that Black P'int if I ever let him stop--I've had my
eye on it for years--and that's why I hurried by. I discovered it
myself, only I never told nobody--he must have heard me talking in my
sleep!"

"Yes, or when you were drunk!" suggested Wilhelmina maliciously. "I hear
you got robbed in Los Angeles. And anyhow I'm glad, because you stole
that five thousand dollars, and no good ever came from stolen property."

"Oh, it didn't, hey?" sneered Dusty, who was recovering his poise,
"well, I'll bet ye _this_ rock was stolen! And if that's the case,
where does your young man git off, that you think the world and all of?
But you've got to show me that he ever _saw_ this rock--I believe
old Hungry was lying to you!"

"Well, don't let me keep you!" cried Billy, bowing mockingly. "Go on
over and ask him yourself--but I'll bet you don't _dare_ to meet
Wunpost!"

"How come Hungry to tell you?" burst out Dusty Rhodes at last, and
Wilhelmina smiled mysteriously.

"That's none of your business, my busy little man," she mimicked in
patronizing tones, "but I've got a piece of that rock right up at the
house. You go back there and mother will show it to you."

"I'm going on!" answered Dusty with instant decision; "can't stop to
make no visit today. They's a big rush coming--every burro-man in
Blackwater--and some of them are legging it afoot. But that thieving son
of a goat, _he_ never found no mine! I know it--it can't be
possible!"

CHAPTER IX

A NEW DEAL

The rush of burro-men to Hungry Bill's ranch followed close in Dusty
Rhodes' wake, and some there were who came on foot; but they soon came
stringing back, for it was a fine, large country and Hungry Bill was
about as communicative as a rattlesnake. All he knew, or cared to know,
was the price of corn and fruit, which he sold at Blackwater prices; and
the search for Wunpost had only served to show to what lengths a man
will go for revenge. In some mysterious way Wunpost