few times, his
trail straightened out and fell into a dim path which had been traversed
by mules once before. Up and up it led, until Tellurium was exhausted
and Wilhelmina had to get off and walk; and at last, when it was almost
at the summit of the range, it entered a great stone patch and was lost.
But the stone-patch was not limitless, and Wilhelmina was
determined--she rode out around it, and soon Good Luck dropped his nose
and set out straight to the south. To the south! That would take him
into the canyon above Blackwater, where the pocket-miners had their
claims; but surely the great Sockdolager was not over there, for the
district had been worked for years.

Wilhelmina's heart stopped as she looked out the country from the high
ridge beyond the stone-patch--could it be that his mine was close? Was
it possible that his great strike was right there at their door while
they had been searching for it clear across Death Valley? It was like
the crafty Wunpost always to head north when his mine was hidden safely
to the south; and yet how had it escaped the eyes of the prospectors who
had been combing the hills for months? Where was it possible for a mine
to be hid in all that expanse of peaks? She sat down on the summit and
considered.

Happy Canyon lay below her, leading off to the west towards Blackwater
and the Sink, and beyond and to the south there was a jumble of
sharp-peaked hills painted with stripes of red and yellow and white. It
was a rough country, and bone dry; perhaps the prospectors had avoided
it and so failed to find his lost mine. Or perhaps he was throwing a
circle out through this broken ground to come back by Hungry Bill's
ranch. Wilhelmina sat and meditated, searching the country with the very
glasses which Wunpost himself had given her; and Good Luck came back and
whined. He had found his master's trail, it led on to the south, and now
Wilhelmina would not come. She did not even take notice of him, and
after watching her face Good Luck turned and ran resolutely on. He knew
whose dog he was, even if she did not; and after calling to him
perfunctorily Wilhelmina let him go, for even this defection might be
used.

Wunpost was so puffed up with pride over the devotion of his dog that he
would be pleased beyond measure to have him follow, and from her lookout
on the ridge she could watch where Good Luck went and spy out the trail
for miles. It was time to turn back if she was to reach home by dark