you get, you slip it to me to help me meet those payments.
It'll let you in on the ground floor, by golly! We'll make a million
out of it, Jo--you and me and the Gentle Wild Cat. And I'll show 'em
how to try and take advantage of a girl like you! Folks, the future
looks mighty bright for all of us!"

While they were conversing Blink Keddie's voice Came from outside the
tent:

"Jo! The trucks are comin' in."

The three went out and joined the head skinner, who pointed far over
the shimmering desert at three dots moving along from the mountains
toward the Washburn-Stokes camp.

"Poor fish!" Tweet said disgustedly. "They don't know what's in store
for 'em. Next trip they make, probably, Ragtown and the big camp will
be on Paloma Rancho, and then they're blocked."

Mr. Tweet ate supper with Jo and her skinners, and afterward the outfit
spent a pleasant evening listening to the promoter's rosy plannings.
Even the most skeptical among them gradually became convinced that, if
he could hold on and meet his payments, he might make a go of it.
Early next morning they started back, passed the polite Mr. Tehachapi
Hank in the course of time, and arrived in Julia without further mishap.

Now came a period of inactivity. There were orders for goods to be
hauled, but a great portion of what was demanded had not yet arrived by
train from the coast side of the mountain range.

Such delays were expensive. Jerkline Jo could have made a profit
running into four figures every month, allowing for deterioration and a
reasonable per cent on the investment represented, could she have kept
her teams moving steadily, with the wagons loaded to capacity every
trip. As yet, though, with so few camps established, this could not
reasonably be hoped for, and she had made due allowance for such
setbacks when deciding upon her freight rate. She had charged
Demarest, Spruce & Tillou three cents a pound for the last consignment.

The three trucks that they had seen returned. They were of two-ton
capacity. More came in from the coast, which carried five tons, and
there was a fleet of five-ton trailers. Jo learned that Drummond had
made a price of two and three-quarter cents, so she promptly met it
and, by wire, notified Demarest to that effect.

She was anxious to see the five-tonners in operation. She believed
that machines carrying a large tonnage would meet with serious
difficulties in the pass, and also in the desert sand, in pla