othed them out on the table and laid a weight on them. He looked at
the end of his cigar, then at her. Of the three bills of exchange on New
York, one was for ten thousand dollars, issued by a Seattle bank;
another was for fifteen thousand, issued by a San Francisco house, and
the third was a certified check for seven thousand and some odd dollars
and cents. Something over thirty-two thousand dollars!

He unconsciously adopted with her something of his way with Phil. He
would not express surprise at the magnitude of the sum she had so
indifferently fished out of her purse, but rather treat the matter as
though he had been prepared for it. The joke of it--that Lois should
have come back with money, when her sisters certainly, and the rest of
the community probably, assumed that her return to Montgomery meant
nothing more or less than the collapse of her fortunes--this was a joke
so delicious, so stupendous, that his enjoyment of it dulled the edge of
his curiosity as to the history the fact concealed. She hadn't even
taken off her gloves to write her name on the drafts! There were
depositors who had shown more emotion over confiding one hundred dollars
to his care than she had displayed in writing her name on the books as
his largest individual depositor. He wanted to giggle; it was the
funniest thing that had ever happened. He remarked casually,--

"Got a gold mine, Lois?"

He was so full of the joy of it that he gasped at her reply.

"How did you know?" she asked sharply.

"I didn't."

"I thought not. Nobody knows. And nobody need know. Just between
ourselves--all this."

He nodded. She was an amazing creature, this sister! The joke grew. He
hoped she would delay and prolong her revelations, that he might miss
nothing of their humor.

"Nevada," she remarked sententiously.

"Ground floor?"

"Something like that."

She pushed toward him the pad with her calculations. They read thus:--

Seattle R. E. 175,000 (about)
Broken Axe (Gov't 3's) 250,000
A. T. & S. F. bonds 20,000
Phoenix Lumber 75,000
Other securities 100,000 (maybe)

His jaw fell and he gulped when he tried to speak. Even Amzi could not
joke about half a million dollars.

"Thunder! You must be fooling, Lois."

"I may be fooled about some of that stuff, but those figures are
supposed to be conservative by people who ought to know."

"Lord! you're a rich woman, Lois," he remarked with awe. "It's