that can buy your mine? I'll bet you I can find you twenty. And
if you don't get an offer of five hundred thousand cash----"

"I'll make it two hundred," interposed Judson Eells hastily, "and
surrender the cancelled grubstake!"

"I don't _want_ the danged grubstake!" burst out Wunpost
impatiently. "What good is it now, when my claim has been jumped and I
ain't got a prospect in sight? No, it ain't worth a cent, now that the
Sockdolager is located, and I don't want it counted for anything."

"But _I_ want it," objected Wilhelmina, "and I'm willing to let it
count. But if others will pay me more----"

"I'll bond your mine," began Judson Eells desperately, "for four hundred
thousand dollars----"

"Don't you do it," came back Wunpost, "because under a bond and lease he
can take possession of your property. And if he ever gits a-hold of
it----"

"I'm talking to Miss Campbell," blustered Eells indignantly, but his
guns were spiked again. Wilhelmina knew his record too well, for he had
driven her from the Willie Meena, and yet she lingered on.

"Suppose," she said at last, "I should sell my mine elsewhere; how much
would you take for that grubstake?"

"I wouldn't sell it at any price!" returned Judson Eells instantly. "I'm
convinced that he has other claims."

"Well, then, how much will you give me in cash for my mine and throw the
grubstake in?"

"I'll give you four hundred thousand dollars in four yearly
payments----"

"Don't you do it," butted in Wunpost, but Wilhelmina turned upon him and
he read the decision in her eye.

"I'll take it," she said. "But this time the papers will be drawn up by
a lawyer that I will hire. And I must say, Mr. Eells, I think the way
you changed those papers----"

"It ought to put him in the Pen," observed Wunpost vindictively. "You're
easy--and you're compounding a felony."

"Well, I don't know what that is," answered Wilhelmina recklessly, "but
anyway, I'll get that grubstake."

"Well, I know one thing," stated Wunpost. "I'm going to keep these
papers until he makes the last of those payments. Because if he don't
dig that gold out inside of four years it won't be because he don't
_try_."

"No, you give them to me," she demanded, pouting, and Wunpost handed
them over. This was a new one on him--Wilhelmina turning pouty! But the
big fight was over, and when Eells went away she dismissed John C.
Calhoun and cried.

It takes time to draw up an ironclad contract that will ho