ng. She's all tiger, or
all woman! God only knows!"

CHAPTER VII

THE WOMAN UNAFRAID

They were to have another opportunity to puzzle over the character of
The Lily before a week passed, when, wishing to make out a new bill of
supplies, they went down to the camp. The night was fragrant with the
spring of the mountains, summer elsewhere--down in the levels where
other occupations than mining held rule. The camp had the same dead
level of squalor in appearance, the same twisting, wriggling, reckless
life in its streets.

"Fine new lot of stuff in," the trader said, pushing his goods in a
brisk way. "Never been a finer lot of stuff brought into any camp than
I've got here now. Canned tomatoes, canned corn, canned beans, canned
meat, canned tripe, canned salmon. That's a pretty big layout, eh? And
I reckon there never was no better dried prunes and dried apricots
ever thrown across a mule's back than I got. Why, they taste as if
you was eatin' 'em right off the bushes! And Mexican beans! Hey, look
at these! Talk about beans and sowbelly, how would these do?"

He plunged his grimy hand into a sack, and lifted a handful of beans
aloft to let them sift through his fingers, clattering, on those
below. The partners agreed that he had everything in the world that
any one could crave in the way of delicacies, and gave him their
orders; then, that hour's task completed, sauntered out into the
street.

Dick started toward the trail leading homeward, but Bill checked him,
with a slow: "Hold on a minute."

The younger man turned back, and waited for him to speak.

"I'd kind of like to go down to the High Light for a while," the big
man said awkwardly. "We ought to go round there and see Mrs. Meredith,
and patronize her as far as a few soda pops, and such go, hadn't we?
Seein' as how she's been right good to us."

Dick, nothing loath to a visit to The Lily, assented, although the
High Light, with its camp garishness, was an old and familiar sight to
any one who had passed seven years in outlying mining regions.

The proprietress was not in sight when they entered, but the
bartenders greeted them in a more friendly way, and the Chinese, who
seemed forever cleaning glasses, grinned them a welcome. They nodded
to those they recognized, and walked back to the little railing.

"Lookin' for Lily?" the man with the bangs asked, trying to show his
friendliness. "She ain't here now, but she'll be here soon. She's
about d