the poor boob talk you'd think he was a millionaire--he had the
world by the tail. And then, at the end of it, he'd be borrying your
tobacco--or anything else you'd got. But I never would've thought that
he'd steal Billy's mule--that's gitting pretty low, it strikes me."

"He never stole my mule!" burst out Wilhelmina angrily. "I expect him
back here any time. And when he does come, and you hear about his mine,
I'll bet you change your tune!"

"Ho! Ho!" shouted Rhodes, nodding and winking at Mrs. Campbell, "she's
getting to be growed-up, ain't she? Last time I come through here she
was a little girl in pigtails but now it's done up in curls. And I can't
say a word against this no-account Wunpost till she calls me a liar to
my face!"

"Billy is almost nineteen," answered Mrs. Campbell quietly, "but I'm
surprised to hear her contradict."

"Well, I didn't mean that," apologized Wilhelmina hastily, "but--well
anyhow, I _know_ he's got a mine! Because he showed me a piece of
quartz that he'd carried all the way, and he must have had a reason for
_that_. It was just moonlight, of course, and I couldn't see the
gold, but I know that it was quartz."

"Ah, Billy, my little girl," returned Dusty indulgently, "you don't know
the boy like I do. And the world is full of quartz but you don't find a
mine right next to a well-worn trail. Have you got that piece of rock?
Well now you see the p'int--he took it _away_! Would he do that if
his mine was on the square?"

"Well, I don't know why not," answered Billy at last and then she bowed
her head and turned away. They gazed after her pityingly as she ran
along the ditch and up to the mouth of her tunnel, but Billy did not
stop till she had threaded its murky passageway and come out at her gate
of dreams. It was from there that she had seen him when he was lost in
the Sink, and she knew her dream of dreams would come true. He was going
to come back, he was going to bring her mule, and make her his partner
in the mine. She looked out--and there was his dust!

CHAPTER III

DUSTY RHODES EATS DIRT

Billy gazed away in ecstasy at the dust cloud in the distance, and at
the white spot that was Tellurium, her mule; and when the rider came
closer she skipped back through the tunnel and danced along the trail to
the house. Dusty Rhodes was still there, describing in windy detail
Wunpost's encounter with one Pisen-face Lynch, but as she stood before
them smiling he sensed the mis