She had chosen to
scoff when he had made his big talk; but here he was back with his
clothes full of money, and Judson Eells had kindly built the road. He
looked up at the moon, where it rose swimming through the haze, and
laughed until he shook; then he camped and waited for day.

The dawn came in a wave of heat, preceding the sun like the breath from
a furnace; and Wunpost woke up suddenly to hear his wilted terrier
barking furiously as he raced towards the house. There was a moment of
silence, then the spit and yell of a cat and as Wunpost stood grinning
his dog came slinking back licking the blood from a scratch across his
nose. He was a fullblooded fox terrier, but small and white and trembly;
and the baby-blue in his eyes pleaded of youth and inexperience as he
crouched before his stern master.

"Come here!" commanded Wunpost but as he reached down to slap him a
voice called his name from above.

"_Don't_ whip him!" it begged and Wunpost withheld his hand for
Wilhelmina had been much in his mind. She came dancing down the trail,
her curls tumbling about her face and down over the perennial
bib-overalls, and when the pup saw her he left his scowling master and
crept meechingly to take refuge at her feet.

"He was chasing Red," she dimpled, "and you know how fierce he is--why,
Red isn't afraid of a wildcat! Where have you been? We've all been
looking for you!"

"I've been in Los Angeles," responded Wunpost with a sigh, "but, by
grab, I never thought that this dog of mine would get licked by an old
yaller cat!"

"He isn't yellow--he's red!" corrected Wilhelmina briskly, "the desert
makes all yellow cats red; but where'd you get your dog? And oh, yes;
isn't it fine--how do you like our new road? They had it built up to
your mine!"

"So I hear," returned Wunpost with a grim twinkle in his eye, "what do
you think of my system now?"

"Why, what system?" asked Billy, staring blankly into his face, and
Wunpost pulled down his lip. Was it possible that this fly-away had
taken his words so lightly that she had forgotten his exposition and
prophecy? Did she think that this road had come there by accident and
not by deep-laid design? He called back his dog and made him lie down
behind him and then he changed the subject.

"How's your father getting along?" he asked after a silence, "has he
shipped out any ore? Well say, you tell 'im to get a move on. There's
liable to be a cloudburst and wash the whole road out, a