ldpan, without recognition. The girl in front of him, so
unlike her father save for the firm chin and capable brow, did not
appear to sense his perturbation.

"Well," she said, "it doesn't matter. I am not jeal---- I'm not any
different--just the same. Come back here and sit down, please, while I
go ahead with what I wish to say."

The interlude appeared to have rendered her more self-possessed.

"So, on that day I met you, I became quite rich. That money has rested
in a bank, doing neither me nor any one else any benefit. I think I
have drawn one check, for twenty-five dollars, just to convince myself
that it was all reality. And I am, in some ways, the daughter of my
father. I want my money to work. I'm quite a greedy young person, you
see. I want to lend you as much of that money as you need."

"Impossible!"

"Not at all. I have as much faith in you, perhaps more, than this
Mister Sloan, of whom I'm a trifle jealous. I want to have a share in
your success. I want to make you feel that, even if I'm not the
daughter of a lumberman, I am, and shall have a right to be,
interested in--in--the Croix d'Or."

"Impossible!"

"It isn't any such thing. I mean it!"

"Then it's because I haven't made it plain to you--haven't made you
understand that even now I am thinking, to preserve my honor, of
telling Mr. Sloan that it is too much of a venture. If I should
decline to venture his money, why should I----?"

"Refuse mine? That's just it. His money you could decline. He isn't on
the ground. He doesn't know mines, mining, or miners. I know them all.
I am here. I know the history of the Cross from the day it made its
first mill run. I went five hundred feet under ground in a California
mine when I was a month old. I've run from the lowest level to the top
of the hoist, and from the grizzlies to the tables, for at least ten
years of my life. I've absorbed it. I've lived in it. Had I the
strength, there isn't a place in this, or any mine, that I couldn't
fill. I'm backing my judgment. The Croix d'Or will prove good with
depth. It may never pay until you get it. The blowing of your dam, the
loss of your green lead, and all of those troubles, don't amount to
that."

She snapped a thumb and forefinger derisively, and went on before he
could interject a word, so intent was she on assisting him and
encouraging him, and proving to him that her judgment, through
knowledge, was better than his.

"Borrow my money, Dick, and sin