id, "I heard you coming--away up there in the pass.
Chuh, chuh, chuh, chud, chud, chud, chud; and I told Virginny you was
coming."

"Yes, I heard about it," answered Wiley sourly, "and then you told the
Widow."

"Oh, no, I didn't!" exulted Charley. "She'd've killed you, sure as
shooting. I just told Virginny, that's all."

"Oh!" observed Wiley, and lay so still that Charley regarded him
intently. His eyes were blue and staring like a newborn babe's, but
behind their look of childlike innocence there lurked a crafty smile.

"I told her," went on Charley, "that you was coming to git her and take
her away in your auto. She's a nice girl, Virginny, and never rode in
one of them things--I never thought you'd try to steal her mine."

"I did not!" denied Wiley, but Death Valley only smiled and waved the
matter aside.

"Never mind," he said, "they're all crazy, anyhow. They get that way
every north wind. I'm here to take care of them--the Colonel asked me
to, and keep people from stealing his mine. It's electricity that does
it--it's about us everywhere--and that's what makes 'em crazy; but
electricity is my servant; I bend it to my will; that's how I come to
hear you. I heard you coming back, away out on the desert, and I knowed
your heart wasn't right. You was coming back to rob the Colonel of his
mine; and the Colonel, he saved my life once. He ain't dead, you know,
he's over across Death Valley in them mountains they call the Ube-Hebes.
Yes, I was lost on the desert and he followed my tracks and found me,
running wild through the sand-hills; and then Virginia and Mrs. Huff,
they looked after me until my health returned."

"You can hear pretty well, then," suggested Wiley diplomatically. "You
must know everything that goes on."

"It's the electricity!" declared Charley. "It's about us everywhere, and
that's what makes them crazy. All these desert rats are crazy, it's the
electric storms that does it--Nevada is a great state for winds. But
when they comes a sandstorm, and Mrs. Huff she wraps up her head, I feel
the power coming on. I can hear far away and then I can hear close--I
make the electricity my slave. But the rest, they go crazy; they have
headaches and megrims, and Mrs. Huff she always wants to fight; but I'm
here to take care of 'em--the Colonel asked me to, so you keep away from
that mine."

"Oh, sure," responded Wiley, "I won't bother the mine. As soon as I'm
well I'll go home."

"No, you stay," retu