ted that first big rush--they came pouring into Keno by
the thousands; but when I show 'em this rock there won't be anybody
left--they'll come across Death Valley like a sandstorm. They'll come
pouring down that wash like a cloudburst in July and the whole doggoned
country will be located. Don't you want to be in on the strike? I'm
giving you a chance, and you'll never have another one like it. All I
ask is this mule, and your canteen and the grub, and I'll tell you what
I'll do--I'll give you half my claim, and I'll bet it's worth millions,
and I'll bring back your mule to boot!"

"Oh, will you?" exclaimed the boy and was scrambling swiftly down when
he stopped with one hand on the horn. "Does--does it make any difference
if I'm a girl?" he asked with a break in his voice, and John C. Calhoun
started back. He looked again and in the desert moonlight the boyish
face seemed to soften and change. Tears sprang into the dark eyes and as
she hung her head a curl fell across her breast.

"Hell--no!" he burst out hardly knowing what he said, "not as long as I
get the mule."

"Then write out that notice for Wilhelmina Campbell--I guess that's my
legal name."

"It's a right pretty name," conceded Calhoun as he mounted, "but somehow
I kinder liked Billy."

CHAPTER II

THE GATEWAY OF DREAMS

Standing alone in the desert, with her face bared to the moonlight and
her curls shaken free to the wind, Wilhelmina smiled softly as she gazed
after the stranger who already had won her heart. His language had been
crude when he thought she was a boy, but that only proved the perfection
of her disguise; and when she had asked if it made any difference, and
confessed that she was a girl, he had bridged over the gap like a flash.
"Hell--no!" he had said, as men oftentimes do to express the heartiest
accord; and then he had added, with the gallantry due a lady, that
Wilhelmina was a right pretty name. And tomorrow, as soon as he had
staked out his claim--their claim--he was coming back to the ranch!

She started back up the long wash that led down from Jail Canyon, still
musing on his masterful ways, but as she rounded the lower point and saw
a light in the house a sudden doubt assailed her. Tellurium was her
mule, to give to whom she chose, but he was matched to pull with Bodie
when they needed a team and her father might not approve. And what would
she say when she met her mother's eye and she questioned her about this
strang