?" inquired Wunpost who, after a few hours' sleep, had
awakened in a most expansive mood; but she only sighed again and shook
her head and gazed off across the quivering Sink. It was a hell-hole of
torment to those who crossed its moods and yet in that waste she had
found this man, who had changed her whole outlook on life. He had come
up from the desert, a sun-bronzed young giant, volcanic in his loves and
his hates; and on the morrow the desert would claim him again, for he
was going back to his mine. And her father was going, too--Jail Canyon
would be as empty as it had been for many a long year--and she who
longed to live, to plunge into the swirl of life, would be left there
alone, to dream.

But what would dreams be after she had tasted the bitter-sweet of living
and learned what it was that she missed; the tug of strong emotions, the
hopes and fears and heartaches that are the fruits of the great Tree of
Life? She wanted to pluck the fruits, be they bitter or sweet, and drain
the world's wine to the dregs; and then, if life went ill, she could
return to her House with something about which to dream. But now she
only sighed and Wunpost took her hand and drew her down beside him in
the shade.

"Don't you worry about _him_ kid?" he observed mysteriously, "I'll
take care of him, all right. And don't you believe a word he said about
me stealing horses and such. I'm a little rough sometimes when these
jaspers try to rob me, but I never take advantage of a friend. I'm a
Kentucky Calhoun, related to John Caldwell Calhoun, the great orator who
debated with Webster; and a Kentucky Calhoun never forgets a kindness
nor forgives an intentional injury. Dusty Rhodes thinks he's smart,
getting a third of our mine after he went off and left me flat; but I'll
show that old walloper before I get through with him that he can't put
one over on me. And there's a man over in Nevada that's going to learn
the same thing as soon as I make my stake--he's another smart Aleck that
thinks he can job me and get away with highway robbery."

"Oh, is that Judson Eells?" broke in Billy quickly and Wunpost nodded
his head.

"That's the hombre," he said his voice waxing louder, "he's one of these
grubstake sharks. He came to Nevada after the Tonopah excitement with a
flunkey they call Flip Flappum. That's another dirty dog that I'm going
to put my mark on when I get him in the door--one of the most low-down,
contemptible curs that I know of--he