uldn't whip,
except--except----"

"Yes, except my love for you. That's right--an' I never expect to."

"How about that jug? Can you whip that?"

"Why, yes, I could. If there was any need. I never tried it."

"Suppose you try it for a while, and see."

The man regarded her seriously. "You mean, if I leave off packin' that
jug, you'll----"

"I haven't promised anything." The girl laughed a trifle nervously.
"But, I will tell you this much. I utterly despise a drunkard!"

Vil Holland nodded slowly. "Let's get the straight of it," he said.
"I didn't know--I didn't realize it was really hurtin' me any. Can you
see that it does? Have I ever done anything that you know of, or have
heard tell of, that a sober man wouldn't do?"

The girl felt her anger rising. "Nobody can drink as much as you do,
and not be the worse for it. Don't try to defend yourself."

"No, I wouldn't do that. You see, if it's hurtin' me, there wouldn't
be any defense--an' if it ain't, I don't need any."

For an instant Patty regarded the man who stood framed in the doorway.
"Clean-blooded," the doctor had called him, and clean-blooded he
looked--the very picture of health and rugged strength, clear of eye
and firm of jaw, not one slightest hint or mark of the toper could she
detect, and the realization that this was so, angered her the more.

Abruptly, she changed the subject, and the moment the brown leather
jug was banished from her mind, her anger subsided. In the doorway,
Vil Holland noted the undercurrent of suppressed excitement in her
voice as she said: "I have the most wonderful news! I--_I found
daddy's mine!_" Seconds passed as the man stood waiting for her to
proceed. "I found it to-day," she continued, without noting that his
lean brown hand gripped the hat brim even more tightly than before,
nor that his lips were pressed into a thin straight line. "And my
stakes are all in, and in the morning I'm going to file."

Vil Holland interrupted. "You--you say you located Rod Sinclair's
strike? You really located it?" Somehow, his voice sounded different.

The girl sensed the change without defining it. "Yes, I really found
it!" she answered. "Do you want to know where?" Hastily she turned to
the cupboard and taking a match from a box, lighted the lamp. "You
see," she laughed, "I am not afraid to trust you. I'm going to show
you daddy's map, and his photographs, and the samples. Oh, if you knew
how I've hunted and hunted through these hi