shouldn't
I let this one go?"

"Oh, boys!" sighed Wunpost and slumped down in his chair, then roused up
with a wild look in his eyes. "You haven't signed up, have you?" he
demanded again. "Well, thank God, then, I got here in time!"

"No you didn't," she said, "because I told him I'd do it and we've
already drawn up the papers. At first he wouldn't hear to it, to release
you from your contract; but when I told him I wouldn't sell without it,
he and Lapham had a conference and they're downstairs now having it
copied. There are to be three copies, one for each of us and one for
you, because of course you're an interested party. And I thought, if you
were released, you could go out and find another mine and----"

"Another one!" raved Wunpost. "Say, you must think it's easy! I'll never
find another one in a life-time. Another Sockdolager? I could sell that
mine tomorrow for a million dollars, cash; it's got a hundred thousand
dollars in sight!"

"Well, that's what you told me when we had the Willie Meena, and now
already they say it's worked out--and I know Mr. Eells isn't rich. He
had to send to Los Angeles to get the money for this first payment----"

"What, have you accepted his _money_?" shouted Wunpost accusingly,
and Wilhelmina rose to her feet.

"Mr. Calhoun," she said, "I'll have you to understand that I own this
mine myself. And I'm not going to sit here and be yelled at like a
Mexican--not by you or anybody else."

"Oh, it's yours, is it?" he jeered. "Well, excuse me for living; but who
came across it in the first place?"

"Well, you did," she conceded, "and if you hadn't been always bragging
about it you might be owning it yet. But you were always showing off,
and making fun of my father, and saying we were all such
_fools_--so I thought I'd just _show_ you, and it's no use
talking now, because I've agreed to sell it to Eells."

"That's all right, kid," he nodded, after a long minute of silence. "I
reckon I had it coming to me. But, by grab, I never thought that little
Billy Campbell would throw the hooks into me like this."

"No, and I wouldn't," she returned, "only you just treated us like dirt.
I'm glad, and I'd do it again."

"Well, I've learned one thing," he muttered gloomily; "I'll never trust
a woman again."

"Now isn't that just like a man!" exclaimed Wilhelmina indignantly. "You
know you never trusted anybody. I asked you one time where you got all
that ore and you looked smart and said: