s was all news to Helen, and her look showed her eager interest.
Longstreet smiled and shook his head.

'That's kind of you,' he said warmly. 'But I like it out here.'

'But, papa,' cried Helen, 'surely you should hear Mr. Carr's
proposition! It is not merely kind of him; it is wonderful if he can
help us that way, and it is wise.'

'No,' said Longstreet. 'Carr won't think me ungrateful. I told them
in the East that there was nothing simpler than the fact that a man
like me, knowing what I know, can discover gold in vast quantities.
First, it is universally conceded that the auriferous deposits
remaining untouched are vastly in excess of those already found and
worked. Second, all of my life I have made a profound study of
geognosy and geotectonic geology. Now, it is not only the money; money
I count as a rather questionable gift, anyway. But it is my own
reputation. What I have said I could do, I will do.' And though his
words came with his engaging smile, he seemed as firmly set in his
determination as a rock hardened in cement.

Helen, who knew her father, sighed and turned from him to Carr. Then
her eyes wandered through the open door, across the flat lands and down
to the distant hills of Desert Valley.

'I should not speak as I am going to speak,' Carr was saying, 'if
matters were not exactly as they are. To begin with, I take it that I
have been accepted as a friend. Hence you will forgive me if I appear
to presume and will know that I have no love of interfering in another
man's personal affairs. Then, I must say what I have to say now: in a
few days I am leaving you. I've got to go to New York.'

'Oh,' said Helen. 'I am sorry.'

'You are kind to me,' he acknowledged gravely. 'And I am sorry to go.
Unless you and your father will consent to come also. Now, I am going
to have my say--and, Mr. Longstreet, I hope you will forgive me if I am
assuming a privilege which is not mine. I take it that you have no
great amount of ready cash. Further, that your income has been that of
most college men, who are all underpaid--say, three or four or five
thousand a year. I have talked with Nate Kemble about you. His
concern is a tremendously big affair with head offices in New York.
Kemble is a friend of mine: I own stock in his company: he will
acknowledge, quite as I am prepared to acknowledge, that there is a
place for an expert of your type in the company. And the place will
pay you, from the