n was the
one who had been the watchman at the mine when they arrived.

The band struck up again, and another dance began, the enthusiasts
forgetting Bill as quickly as they had saluted him; but the
ex-watchman continued to lean against the post, a picture of
sullenness, and in the box The Lily stood with knitted brows, as if
trying to recollect him.

"Well," she said at last, "I must go now. Come and see me whenever
you can, both of you. I like you."

They arose and followed her out of the box, and down the flimsy
stairs that led to the floor below. She paused on the bottom step, and
clutched the casing with both hands, then tried to get a closer
look at the ex-watchman, who had turned away until but a small part
of his face was exposed. She walked onward, still looking angrily
preoccupied, to the end of the bar, and the partners were on the
point of bidding her good-night, when she abruptly started, seemed to
tense herself, and exclaimed: "Now I know him!"

The partners wondered when she made a swift clutch under the end of
the bar and slipped something into the bosom of her jacket. She took
five or six determined steps toward the ex-watchman and tapped him on
the shoulder.

He whirled sharply as if his mind had guilty fears, and faced her
defiantly.

Those immediately around, suspecting something unusual, stopped to
watch them, and listened.

"So you are here in Goldpan, are you, Wolff?" she demanded, with a
cold sneer in her voice.

He gave her a fierce, defiant stare, and brazenly growled: "You're
off. My name's not Wolff. My name's Brown."

"You lie!" she flared back, with a hard anger in her voice. "Your name
is Gus Wolff! You get out of this place, and don't you ever come in
again! If you do, I'll have you thrown out like a dog."

He glowered at the crowd that was forming around him, as crowds
invariably form in any controversy, and then started toward the door,
but he made a grave mistake. He called back a vile epithet as he
went.

"Stop!" she commanded him, with an imperious, compelling tone.

He half-turned, and then shrugged his shoulders, and made as if to
move on.

"Stop, I said!"

He turned again to face a pistol which she had snatched from her
jacket, and now the partners, amazed, understood what that swift
motion had meant. He halted irresolutely.

"You used a name toward me that I permit no man to use," she said
fiercely. "So I shall explain to these men of Goldpan who you are, Gu