do anything for me."

"But my partners didn't! On the contrary--"

"Don't tell me, George," said Miss Kitty severely. "THEY ought never to
have let you come here with that stuff. But come! You must go at once.
You must not meet Paw; you'll blurt out everything to him; I know you!
I'll tell him you could not stay to luncheon. Quick, now; go. What?
Well--there!"

Whatever it represented, the exclamation was apparently so protracted
that Miss Kitty was obliged to push her lover to the front landing
before she could disappear by the back stairs. But once in the street,
Barker no longer lingered. It was a good three miles back to the Gulch;
he might still reach it by the time his partners were taking their
noonday rest, and he resolved that although the messenger had preceded
him, they would not enter upon the new claim until the afternoon. For
Barker, in spite of his mistress's injunction, had no idea of taking
what he couldn't pay for; he would keep the claim intact until something
could be settled. For the rest, he walked on air! Kitty loved him!
The accursed wealth no longer stood between them. They were both poor
now--everything was possible.

The sun was beginning to send dwarf shadows toward the east when he
reached the Gulch. Here a new trepidation seized him. How would his
partners receive the news of his utter failure? HE was happy, for he had
gained Kitty through it. But they? For a moment it seemed to him that he
had purchased his happiness through their loss. He stopped, took off his
hat, and ran his fingers remorsefully through his damp curls.

Another thing troubled him. He had reached the crest of the Gulch, where
their old working ground was spread before him like a map. They were not
there; neither were they lying under the four pines on the ridge where
they were wont to rest at midday. He turned with some alarm to the new
claim adjoining theirs, but there was no sign of them there either. A
sudden fear that they had, after parting from him, given up the claim
in a fit of disgust and depression, and departed, now overcame him. He
clapped his hand on his head and ran in the direction of the cabin.

He had nearly reached it when the rough challenge of "Who's there?" from
the bushes halted him, and Demorest suddenly swung into the trail.
But the singular look of sternness and impatience which he was wearing
vanished as he saw Barker, and with a loud shout of "All right, it's
only Barker! Hooray!" he ran