der a mesquite tree in
the chill before sunrise, his mind intent upon the trail; facing the
desert and its hardships as a matter of course, with never a thought
that other men would shrink from the ordeal.

I saw him kneeling before a solid face of rock in a shallow cut in the
hillside, swinging his "single-jack" with tireless rhythm; a tap and a
turn of the steel, a tap and a turn--chewing tobacco industriously and
stopping now and then to pry off a fresh bit from the plug in his hip
pocket before he reached for the "spoon" to muck out the hole he was
drilling.

I saw him larruping in his Ford along a sandy, winding trail it would
break a snake's back to follow, hot on the heels of his next adventure,
dreaming of the fortune that finally came. . . .

The Little Woman came in looking as if she had been talking with
Destiny and was still dazed and unsteady from the meeting.

"Well-sir, he's gone!" she announced, and stopped and tried to smile.
But her eyes looked hurt and sorry. "He has bought a Ford and a tent
and outfit since he left us down on Seventh and Broadway, and he just
called me up on long-distance from San Bernardino. He's going out on a
prospecting trip, he says. I'll say he's been going some! A speed cop
overhauled him just the other side of Claremont, he told me, and he was
delayed for a few minutes while he licked the cop and kicked him and
his motorcycle into a ditch. He says he's sorry he sassed me, and if I
can drive a car in this darned town and not spend all my loose change
paying fines, I'm a better man than he is. He doesn't know when he'll
be back--and there you are."

She sat down wearily on the arm of an over-stuffed armchair and looked
up at the gilt-and-onyx clock which I suspected Casey of having bought.
"If he isn't lynched before morning," she sighed whimsically, "he'll
probably make it to the Nevada line all right."

I rose, also glancing at the clock. But the Little Woman put up a hand
to forbid the plan she read in my mind.

"Let him alone, Jack," she advised. "Let him go and be just as wild
and devilish as he wants to be. I'm only thankful he can take it out
on a Ford and a pick and shovel. There really isn't any trouble
between us two. Casey knows I can look out for myself for awhile.
He's got to have a vacation from loafing and matrimony. I'm so thankful
he isn't taking it in jail!"

I told her somewhat bluntly that she was a brick, and that if I could
get in touc