t I've
got a definite reason for it. You see I haven't been as idle as you
think. I've been hunting around on the trail of Peter Blunt. Folks all
think him a fool, and cranky some. I never did. He's been a gold
prospector most of his life. And it's not likely he don't know. Well,
I'm not giving you a long yarn, and to cut it short, I'm right on to a
big find. At least I've got color in a placer up at the head waters,
and to-morrow I go out to work it for all it's worth. No, I'm not
going to tell even you where it is. You see it's a placer, and anybody
could work it, and I'd be cut clean out if others got to know where it
was. You savvee?"

Eve nodded, but without conviction. The man detected her lack of
belief, and that brutal light which was so often in his eyes now
suddenly flamed up. But after a moment of effort he banished it, and
resorted to an imitation of jocularity.

"So now, old girl, hand over that thirty dollars. I'm going to make a
'coup,' and to-morrow begins a period of--gold. I give you my word you
shall get it--sure as I'm a living man. I'm not talking foolish. The
shining yellow stuff is there for the taking. And so easy, too."

He waited with a grin of cunning on his lips. He was intoxicated with
his own surety. And, curiously, well as Eve knew him, that certainty
communicated itself to her in spite of her reason. But the matter of
handing over the thirty dollars was different.

A hard light crept into her eyes as she looked down at him from where
she stood. Though he did not know it, he was rapidly killing all the
love she had for him. Eve was one of those women who can love with
every throb of their being. Self had no place in her. The man she
loved was, as a natural consequence, her all. Kill her love and she
could be as cold and indifferent as marble. At one time in their brief
married life those dollars would never have been considered. They
would have been his without the asking. Now----

She shook her head decidedly.

"You can't have them," she said firmly. "They've got to keep us for a
month. If you depend on them for a game, you had better wait till you
get the gold from your placer." She moved away, talking as she went.
"There's not only ourselves to consider. There's Elia. I----"

But she got no further. The mention of her brother's name suddenly
infuriated the man.

"Don't talk to me of that little devil!" he cried. "I want those
thirty dollars, d'you understand?" He crashed his f