ls,
and after you've got a bellyful perhaps you'll listen to reason. You got
stung good and plenty when you bought the Stinging Lizard and I figure
I'm pretty well heeled. Got two new mules, beside my other animals, and
an eight hundred dollar watch-dog to keep me company; and I'm going to
come back inside of a month with my mules loaded down with gold. Do you
reckon your pet rabbit, Mr. Phillip F. Flappum, can make me come through
with any part of it? Well, I consulted a lawyer before I left Los
Angeles and he said--decidedly not! Your contract calls for claims,
wherever located, but I haven't got any claim. This ore that I bring in
may be dug from some claim, and then again it may be high-graded from
some mine; but you've got to find that claim and prove that it exists
before you can call for a cent. You've got to prove, by grab, where I
got that gold, before you can claim that it's yours--and that's
something you never can do. I'm going to say I _stole_ it and if
you sue for any part of it you make yourself out a thief!"

He slammed his hand on Eells' desk and slammed the door when he went out
and mounted his big mule with a swagger. The citizens of Blackwater made
way for him promptly, though many a lip curled in scorn, and he rode out
of town sitting sideways in his saddle while he did a little jig in his
stirrups. He had come into town and bearded their leading citizen and
now he was on his way. If any wished to follow, that was their privilege
as free citizens, and their efforts might lead them to a mine; but on
the other hand they might lead them up some very rocky canyons and down
through Death Valley in summer. But there was one man he knew would
follow, for the stakes were high and Judson Eells was not to be
denied--it was up to Lynch, who had claimed to be so bad, to prove
himself a tracker and a desert-man.

Wunpost rode along slowly until the sun went down, for the heat-haze
hung black over the Sink, and that evening about midnight he entered
Jail Canyon on a road that was graded like a boulevard. It swung around
the point well up above the creek, and then on along the wash to
Corkscrew Gorge, and as he paused below the house Wunpost chuckled to
himself as he thought of his boasts to Wilhelmina. He had bet her two
months before that, without turning his hand over or spending a cent of
money, he could build her father a road; and now here it was, laid out
like a highway--a proof that his system would work.