ack for a last hoard
of gold. It was there for the taking, and he could have all he wanted as
long as he turned over the thousand dollar bill. Wunpost was insistent
upon this and as they prepared to start he accepted it as payment in
full.

"That's _my_ idea of money!" he exclaimed admiringly as he smoothed
the silken note across his knee. "A thousand dollar bill, and you could
hide it inside your ear--say, wait till I pull that in Los! I'll walk up
to the bar in my old, raggedy clothes and if the barkeep makes any
cracks about paying in advance I'll just drop _that_ down on the
mahogany. That'll learn him, by grab, to keep a civil tongue in his head
and to say Mister when he's speaking to a gentleman."

He grinned at the Judas that he had taken to his bosom but Fellowes did
not respond. He was haunted by a fear that the simple-minded Wunpost
might ask him where he got that big bill, since it is rather out of the
ordinary for even a barkeeper to have that much money in his clothes;
but the simple-minded Wunpost was playing a game of his own and he asked
no embarrassing questions. It was taken for granted that they were both
gentlemen of integrity, each playing his own system to win, and the
barkeeper's nervous fear that the joker would pop up somewhere found no
justification in fact. He had his gold, all he could carry of it, and
Wunpost had his thousand dollar bill, and now nothing remained to hope
for but a quick trip home and a speedy deliverance from his misery.

"Say, for cripes' sake," he wailed, "ain't they any short-cut home? I'm
so lame I can hardly walk."

"Well, there is," admitted Wunpost, "I could have you home by morning.
But you might take to dropping that gold, like you did them Boston
beans, and I'd come back to find my mine jumped."

"Oh, I won't drop no gold!" protested Fellowes earnestly, "and them
beans was just for a joke. Always read about it, you know, in these here
lost treasure stories; but shucks, I didn't mean no harm!"

"No," nodded Wunpost, "if I'd thought you did I'd have ditched you, back
there in the rocks. But I'll tell you what I _will_ do--you let me
keep you blindfolded and I'll get you out of here quick."

"You're on!" agreed Fellowes and Wunpost whipped out his handkerchief
and bound it across his whole face. They rode on interminably, but it
was always down hill and the sagacious Mr. Fellowes even noted a deep
gorge through which water was rushing in a torrent. Shortly afte