throne. He had refused half the mine from Blount as a gift and then
turned around and bought it all. He had refused to buy her shares, time
and again, when he knew they were worth a million; and then, to cap the
climax, he had let her sell to Blount and bought them for nothing from
him. And even Death Valley Charley--poor, crazy, brain-sick Charley--he
had robbed him of all ten of his claims!

It was a damning arraignment, and Wiley's men listened grimly, but he
only twisted his lip and nodded his head ironically. With one eye on his
accuser, who was becoming hysterical, he hustled the ore into the empty
trucks and started them off down the road; and then, as Virginia led her
mother away, he re-engaged his cook. They had supper that night in the
old, abandoned cook-house; and, so wonderfully do great minds work, that
a complete bill of grub was discovered among the freight. Not only flour
and beans and canned goods and potatoes, but baking powder and matches
and salt; and the cook observed privately that you'd think Mr. Holman
had intended to make camp all the time. It is thus that foresight leaps
ahead into the future and robs life of half its ills; and the Widow
Huff, still unpacking plates and saucers, was untroubled by clamorous
guests. She had had her say and, as far as Wiley was concerned, there
were no more favors to be expected.

Yet the Widow was wise in the ways of mining camps and she prepared to
feed a horde--and the next day they came, by automobile and
motor-truck, until every table was filled. The rush was on, for
four-thousand dollar ore will bring men from the ends of the world.
Before the sun had set in the red glow of a sandstorm the desert was
staked for miles. From the chimneys of old houses, long abandoned to
the rats, rose the smokes of many fires and the rush and whine of
passing automobiles told of races to distant grounds. All the old
mines in the district, and of neighboring districts where the precious
"heavy spar" occurred, were re-located--or jumped, as the case might
be--and held to await future developments. The first thing was to
stake. They could prospect the ground later. Tungsten now was king.
Men who had never heard the name, or pronounced it haltingly, now
spoke learnedly of tungsten tests; and he was a poor prospector indeed
who lacked his bottle of hydrochloric acid and his test-tubes and
strip of shiny tin. They swarmed about the base of the old Paymaster
dump like bees around a