omesick this way, after all
the trouble I've had here, would you?"

The old man removed his pipe. "Anybody here in particular you want to
see?" he asked slowly.

Rathburn shrugged. "You're always gettin' right down to cases first
hand off an' running," he complained. "Of course there's folks I want
to see. I want to see you, for instance."

"I don't reckon you'd be ridin' any terrible great distance an' takin'
chances by the handful just to see me, boy," said Price. "But I ain't
tryin' to pry into your affairs. You don't have to answer any of the
fool questions I ask you--you know that. I'm an old man an' gettin'
childish."

Rathburn laughed. "I can believe that when I find you still putterin'
around up here where there ain't even a sign of mineral," he chided.

"There's gold right under your feet," said the old man stoutly. "I'll
have a payin' vein opened up here in less'n three months."

"I hope so, Joe. There's nobody I'd like more to see make a big strike
than you. You were my dad's friend, an' you've been mine. I haven't
got many friends, Joe."

"But them you've got is good ones," said Price quickly. "How long you
been away?"

"About eight months," Rathburn replied with a frown.

"It's hard to get away from the desert," mused the old man. "It's in
your blood. If you leave here for good you've just naturally got to
take something along with you from here--something that's a part of
the desert, you might say."

Rathburn looked keenly at the face of his friend. But the old man was
regarding his pipe, as if he had never until that moment seen it.

"I ran into a posse chasin' a gang that robbed a stage on the way over
here this noon," Rathburn said presently.

Price's interest quickened, but he made no sign. "They saw you?" he
asked.

"Couldn't help it," Rathburn grumbled. "Took after me. I had to drop
one of 'em with a bullet in the shoulder to slow 'em up in the long
canyon over on the other side."

"Know any of the gang?" Price asked.

"Met one. Threw down my gun on him. He told me Mike Eagen was runnin'
the works."

Price nodded. "I reckon Mike's been pullin' quite a few stunts while
you been away."

"An' I've been gettin' the blame for 'em more'n likely," said Rathburn
in indignation.

Price nodded again. "Might be so," he commented.

Rathburn looked up at him in understanding. "They'll have me mixed up
with this stage holdup," he said earnestly. "From what I gathered they
killed the driv