, it's the
gate--we'll give him the gate!"

He pranced about joyously, vainly trying to make her smile, but
Wilhelmina had lost her gaiety.

"No," she said, "let's not do that--because I made him apologize, you
know. But don't you think it's possible that Judson Eells will follow
after you and claim this mine too, under his contract?"

"He can't!" chuckled Wunpost starting to do a double-shuffle, "I fooled
him--this isn't Nevada. And when I found the Wunpost I was eating his
grub, but this time I was strictly on my own. I came to a country where
I'd never been before, so he couldn't say I'd covered it up; and that
contract was made out in the state of Nevada, but this is clear over in
California. Not a chance, kid, we're rich, cheer up!"

He tried to grab her hand but she drew it away from him and an anxious
look crept into her eyes.

"No," she said, "let's not be foolish." Already the great dream had
sped.

CHAPTER V

THE WILLIE MEENA

The morning had scarcely dawned when Wilhelmina dashed up the trail and
looked down on the Sink below; and Wunpost had been right, where before
all was empty, now the Death Valley Trail was alive. From Blackwater to
Wild Rose Wash the dust rose up in clouds, each streamer boring on
towards the north; and already the first stampeders had passed out of
sight in their rush for the Black Point strike. It lay beyond North
Pass, cut off from view by the shoulder of a long, low ridge; but there
it was, and her claim and Wunpost's was already swarming with men. The
whole town of Blackwater had risen up in the night and gone streaking
across the Sink, and what was to keep those envious pocket-miners from
claiming the find for their own? And Dusty Rhodes--he must have led the
stampede--had he respected his partners' rights? She gazed a long
moment, then darted back through the tunnel and bore the news to her
father and Wunpost.

He had slept in the hay, this hardy desert animal, this shabby,
penniless man with the loud voice of a demagogue and the profile of a
bronze Greek god; and he came forth boldly, like Odysseus of old when,
cast ashore on a strange land, he roused from his sleep and beheld
Nausicaa and her maidens at play. But as Nausicaa, the princess,
withstood his advance when all her maidens had fled, so Wilhelmina faced
him, for she knew full well now that he was not a god. He was a
water-hole prospector who for two idle years had eaten the bread of
Judson Eells; an