e just as high as you want."

"Whatever I get I will owe to you. I--I've been thinking.
Suppose--well, suppose you keep two of those claims; they are sure to
be rich--"

"Why, Necia!" he exclaimed.

"They're yours, and I have no right to them under the law. Of course it
would be very handsome of you to give me one--the poorest."

"You ought to have your ears boxed," he laughed at her.

"I don't see why. You--you--may be very poor, for all I know."

"I am," he declared, "but not poor enough to take payment for a favor."

"Well, then, if they are really mine to do with as I please, I'll sell
one to you--"

"Thanks. I couldn't avail myself of the offer," he said, with mock
hauteur.

"If you were a business man instead of a fighting person you would
listen to my proposition before you declined it. I'll make the price
right, and you may pay me when we get behind yonder clump of bushes."
She pouted her lips invitingly, but he declared she was a minor and as
such her bargain would not hold.

It was evidently her mood to re-enter the land of whims and travel
again, as they had on the way from town, but he knew that for him such
a thing could not be, for his eyes had cleared since then. He knew that
he could never again wander through the happy valley, for he vowed this
maid should be no plaything for him or for any other man, and as there
could be no honorable end to this affair, it must terminate at once.
Just how this was to be consummated he had not determined as yet, nor
did he like to set about its solution, it hurt him so to think of
losing her. However, she was very young, only a child, and in time
would come to count him but a memory, no doubt; while as for him--well,
it would be hard to forget her, but he could and would. He reasoned
glibly that this was the only honest course, and his reasoning
convinced him; then, all of a sudden, the pressure of her warm lips
came upon him and the remembrance upset every premise and process of
his logic. Nevertheless, he was honest in his stubborn determination to
conclude the affair, and finally decided to let time show him the way.

She seemed to be very happy, her mood being in marked contrast to that
of Poleon and the trader, both of whom had fallen silent and gloomy,
and in whom the hours wrought no change. The latter had tacitly
acknowledged his treachery towards Stark on the previous night, but
beyond that he would not go, offering no motive, excuse, or
explanat