st I didn't ask you to come out here, and I didn't ask you to bring
anybody along with you. I've played fair with you. You don't come
here to do me any favor, do you?"

"Oh, well,"--began the other.

"Then you think there might be something here, after all?"

"What is there here?"

"A very great deal. There's just as much here as there is anywhere
else in the world."

Mr. Ellsworth arose and stepped to the door. For a moment he stood
looking out at the twilight. He turned suddenly to the young man.
"I'll tell you," said he. "There's something to you--I don't know
what. Drop all this. Come on back. I'll think it over--I'll give
you a place in my office."

"You'd give me _what_? Did you ever stop to think that you can't
give me _anything_?"

Surprise sat on his visitor's face. "_Nada_!" cried Dan Anderson.
"Me go back there and work on a salary for you? Me check my immortal
soul on your hat-rack? Me live scared of my life, like all the rest
of the slaves in that infernal system of living, that hell? If I
should do that, I'd be giving you some license for the opinion of me
you once expressed, before you really knew me."

"But what have you got out here?" repeated the other, stupidly.

Dan Anderson made no answer, except a sweep of his hand to the
mountains, and an unconscious swell of the broad chest beneath his
blue shirt.

"What made you come?" insisted Mr. Ellsworth, feeling around for the
neck of the bottle, which had been forgotten.

"You know almighty well why I came. But let that go. Let's say I
came for the express purpose of handling your local interests when you
buy our coal-mines and try to get a railroad somewhere near our valley
if you have luck later. I'm going to be your kind and loving partner
in that deal, and I'll soak you the limit in everything I do for you.
You watch me. I'm going to stay here, and I'm going to work all I
want to. When I don't want to, there isn't any living mortal soul
that's going to crack a whip over me and tell me I've got to."

"Things seem rather strange," began Mr. Ellsworth. "You talk as
though I were obliged to put money into these mines."

"Of course you will. You can't help it. You never saw a better
opportunity for investment in all your life. But now let me tell you
another thing, which I oughtn't to tell you if I served you right.
You go slow while you're here. There is plenty of gold in this
valley. There isn't a fellow in this s