ot a mine or two hid out that would make 'em
fairly scream if I'd show 'em a piece of the rock. All I need is a
little capital, just a few thousand dollars to get me a good outfit of
mules, and I'll come back into Blackwater with a pack-load of ore
that'll make 'em _all_ sit up and take notice."

He swung his fist into his hand with oratorical fervor and Mrs. Campbell
appeared suddenly at the door. Her first favorable impression of the
gallant young Southerner had been changed by the course of events and
she was now morally certain that the envious Dusty Rhodes had come
nearer the unvarnished truth. To be sure he had apologized, but Wunpost
himself had said that it was only to gain a share in the mine--and how
lamentably had Wunpost failed, after all his windy boasts, when it came
to a conflict with Judson Eells. He had weakened like a schoolboy, all
his arguments had been puerile; and even her husband, who was far from
censorious, had stated that the whole affair was badly handled. And now
here he was, after a secret conference with her daughter, suddenly
bursting into vehement protestations and hinting at still other hidden
mines. Well, his mines might be as rich as he declared them to be, but
Mrs. Campbell herself was dubious.

"Wilhelmina," she called, "don't stand out in the sun! Why don't you
invite Mr. Calhoun to the house?"

The hint was sufficient, Mr. Calhoun excused himself hastily and went
striding away down the canyon; and Wilhelmina, after a perfunctory
return to the house, slipped out and ran up to her lookout. Not a word
that he had said about the rush to Blackwater was in any way startling
to her; she had seen every dust-cloud, marked each automobile as it
rushed past, and even noted the stampede from the west. For the natural
way to Blackwater was not across Death Valley from the distant Nevada
camps, but from the railroad which lay only forty miles to the west and
was reached by an automobile stage. The road came down through
Sheep-herder Canyon, on the other side of the Sink, and every day as she
looked across its vastness she saw the long trailers of dust. She knew
that the autos were rushing in with men and the slow freighters were
hauling in supplies--all the real news for her was the number of saloons
and restaurants, and that Eells was starting a bank.

A bank! And in Blackwater! The only bank that Blackwater had ever had or
needed was the safe in Old Whiskers' saloon; and now this rich schem