Well--she's at Arcadia still. The mother lady was all for going back to
New York--but, no, sir! Girl says she's twenty-one, likes Arcadia, and
she's going to stay a spell. Leastwise, so I hear."

"I _will_ kill you!" said Jeff. "Here, wait till I saddle my nag and say
good-by."

* * * * *

Beyond San Elizario, as they climbed the Pass of All the Winds, the two
friends halted to breathe their horses.

"Jeff," said Johnny, rather soberly, "you can kick me after I say my
little piece--I'll think poorly of you if you don't--but ain't you
making maybe a mistake? That girl, now--nice girl, and all that--but
that girl's got money, Jeff."

"I hate a fool worse than a knave, any day in the week," said Jeff: "and
the man that would let money keep him from the only girl--why, Johnny,
he's so much more of a fool than the other fellow is a scoundrel----"

"I get you!" said Johnny. "You mean that a submarine boat is better
built for roping steers than a mogul engine is skilful at painting
steeples, and you wonder if you can't get a fresh horse somewhere and
go on through to Arcadia to-night?"

"Something like that," admitted Jeff. "Besides," he added lightly,
"while I'd like that girl just as well if I didn't have a cent--why, as
it happens, I'm pretty well fixed, myself. I've got money to throw at
the little dicky-birds--all kinds of money. Got a fifty-one-per-cent
interest in a copper mine over in Harqua Hala that's been payin' me all
the way from ten to five thousand clear per each and every year for the
last seven years, besides what I pay a lad for lookout to keep anybody
but himself from stealing any of it. He's been buyin' real estate for me
in Los Angeles lately."

Johnny's jaw dropped in unaffected amazement.

"All this while? Before you and Leo hit Rainbow?"

"Sure!" said Jeff.

"And you workin' for forty a month and stealin' your own beef?--then
saving up and buying your little old brand along with Beebe and Leo and
old Wes', joggin' along, workin' like a yaller dog with fleas?"

"Why not? Wasn't I having a heap of fun? Where can I see any better time
than I had here, or find better friends? Money's no good by itself. I
haven't drawn a dollar from Arizona since I left. It was fun to make the
mine go round at first; but when it got so it'd work I looked for
something else more amusing."

"I should think you'd want to travel, anyhow."

"Travel?" echoed Jeff. "Travel? Why, you d