, Dan," Job answered in a firm voice.

"Yer hypocrite! Yer think yer got the cinch on me, don't yer, Job
Malden! 'It's a long lane that has no turn,' they say, and yer'll wish
some day yer'd treated Dan Dean square!" and he turned with a leer and
was gone.

More than once after that Job felt uneasy and wretched as he thought
of the possibility of Jane's linking her life with that of Daniel
Dean. Twice he tried to write her, but he blotted the paper in his
nervousness, and at last tore the letters up.

By a strange coincidence, it was the same week that Andrew Malden
struck a rich pocket of gold back of Lookout Point and secretly
carried it down to Gold City bank and paid off the mortgage on the
four hundred acres back of the mill, that Job Malden was held up.

This is how it happened: Just after hours one night the superintendent
called Job into his private office and said:

"Young man, how much will you sell yourself for?"

Decidedly startled, Job answered: "What do you mean, sir?"

"I mean," said the portly, gray-haired man, with his set mouth and
black eyes, all business, "Can I trust you with a large sum of money?
or will the temptation to use it for yourself be too strong?"

"Sir," answered Job indignantly, "sir, I have no price! I want none
but honest money as mine."

"Well, all right, my boy; I guess I can trust you," said his employer.
"Now, I have some bullion to be taken down to the Wells-Fargo office
at Gold City, to go off on the morning stage. You will find Dick, my
horse, saddled at the stable. Eat some supper, mount Dick, come around
to the rear of my house, and the bag will be waiting. Take it down to
the Wells-Fargo office, where the man will be waiting to get it. I
have sent him word. Hurry now! And mind you don't lose any of it. Will
give you a week's extra pay if you get through all right."

With a "Thank you, sir; I'll do the best I can," Job hurried off on
his responsible errand.

It was a beautiful moonlight evening in June. Crossing the summit of
the mountain, the fresh breeze fanned his brow, heated with the warm
day's labor, and he walked Dick along, drinking in once more with
genuine joy the grandeur of the forests robed in silver light. Just
beyond Mike Hennessy's, as he turned into the main road, clouds
obscured the moon and a somber pall fell over the road. He felt to see
that his treasure was safe, and urged Dick into a canter.

He had not gone far when he thought he heard ho