ing it over--and
offered to lend me four hundred dollars. What do you think of that?"

"That I ain't goin' to be too proud to borrow it off 'm, if he IS a
Chink. He's a white one, an' maybe I'll need it. Because, you see--well,
you can't guess what I've been up to since I seen you this mornin'. I've
been so busy I ain't had a bite to eat."

"Using your head?" She laughed.

"You can call it that," he joined in her laughter. "I've been spendin'
money like water."

"But you haven't got any to spend," she objected.

"I've got credit in this valley, I'll let you know," he replied. "An' I
sure strained it some this afternoon. Now guess."

"A saddle-horse?"

He roared with laughter, startling the colt, which tried to bolt and
lifted him half off the ground by his grip on its frightened nose and
neck.

"Oh, I mean real guessin'," he urged, when the animal had dropped back
to earth and stood regarding him with trembling suspicion.

"Two saddle-horses?"

"Aw, you ain't got imagination. I'll tell you. You know Thiercroft. I
bought his big wagon from 'm for sixty dollars. I bought a wagon from
the Kenwood blacksmith--so-so, but it'll do--for forty-five dollars. An'
I bought Ping's wagon--a peach--for sixty-five dollars. I could a-got it
for fifty if he hadn't seen I wanted it bad."

"But the money?" Saxon questioned faintly. "You hadn't a hundred dollars
left."

"Didn't I tell you I had credit? Well, I have. I stood 'm off for them
wagons. I ain't spent a cent of cash money to-day except for a
couple of long-distance switches. Then I bought three sets of
work-harness--they're chain harness an' second-hand--for twenty dollars
a set. I bought 'm from the fellow that's doin' the haulin' for the
quarry. He don't need 'm any more. An' I rented four wagons from 'm,
an' four span of horses, too, at half a dollar a day for each horse,
an' half a dollar a day for each wagon--that's six dollars a day rent
I gotta pay 'm. The three sets of spare harness is for my six horses.
Then... lemme see... yep, I rented two barns in Glen Ellen, an' I
ordered fifty tons of hay an' a carload of bran an' barley from the
store in Glenwood--you see, I gotta feed all them fourteen horses, an'
shoe 'm, an' everything.

"Oh, sure Pete, I've went some. I hired seven men to go drivin' for me
at two dollars a day, an'--ouch! Jehosaphat! What you doin'!"

"No," Saxon said gravely, having pinched him, "you're not dreaming."
She felt his pulse and