t he was confident he could show
them that a man can take chances and yet play his cards to win. He had
taken chances with Blount when he had accepted his money, for there were
other banks that would lend on his mine; but in what more harmless way
could he engage his attention and keep him from actual sabotage?

It was that which he dreaded, the resort to open warfare, the fire and
vandalism, and dynamite; and day and night he kept his eye on the works,
and hired a night-watchman, to boot. But as long as Blount was convinced
he could win back the mine peaceably he would not resort to violence
and, though Stiff Neck George still hung about the camp, he kept
scrupulously away from the Paymaster.

As Christmas day wore on and the sun came out gleaming, Wiley swung off
down the trail and through the town. He was a big man now, the man who
had saved Keno after ten years of stagnation and lingering death; and
yet there were those who disliked him. They recited old stories of his
shrewd dealings with Mrs. Huff, and with Virginia and Death Valley
Charley; and if any were forgotten the Widow undoubtedly recalled them.
She was a shrewish woman, full of gossip and backbiting, and she let no
opportunity pass; so that even old Charley cherished a certain
resentment, though he disguised it as solicitude for the Huffs. And so
on Christmas day, as Wiley walked down the street, many greetings lacked
a holiday heartiness.

The front room of the Huff house was full of children and, as Wiley
walked back and forth, he caught a glimpse of Virginia; but she did
not come out and, after lingering around for a while, he climbed up
the trail to the mine. He had caught but a glimpse, but it was
clean-cut as a cameo--a classic head, eagerly poised; dark hair,
brushed smoothly back; and a smile, for some neighbor's child. That
was Virginia, high-headed and patrician, but kind to lame dogs and
lost cats. She had invited in the children but he, Wiley Holman, who
had loved her since she was a child, had been permitted to pass
unnoticed. He wandered about uneasily, then went back to his office
and began to run over his accounts.

Over a hundred thousand dollars had passed through his hands in less
than a calendar month and yet the long haul across the desert from Vegas
had put him in the hole. Besides the initial cost of cables and
timbers--and of a rock breaker and the concentrating plant--there was a
charge of approximately twenty dollars a ton fo