had left as he had come, a single-blanket tourist, packing his
worldly possessions on his back; and when last seen by Wilhelmina he was
headed east, up the wash that came down from the Panamints. Where he was
going, when he would return, if he ever would return, all were mysteries
to the girl who waited on; and if she watched for him it was because
there was no one else whose coming would stir her heart. Far up the
canyon and over the divide there lived Hungry Bill and his family, but
Hungry was an Indian and when he dropped in it was always to get
something to eat. He had two sons and two daughters, whom he kept
enslaved, forbidding them to even think of marriage; and all his
thoughts were of money and things to eat, for Hungry Bill was an Indian
miser.

He came through often now with his burros packed with fruit from the
abandoned white-man's ranch that he had occupied; and even his wild-eyed
daughters had more variety than Billy, for they accompanied him to
Blackwater and Willie Meena. There they sold their grapes and peaches at
exorbitant prices and came back with coffee and flour, but neither would
say a word for fear of their old father, who watched them with
intolerant eyes. They were evil, snaky eyes, for it was said that in his
day he had waylaid many a venturesome prospector, and while they gleamed
ingratiatingly when he was presented with food, at no time did they show
good will. He was still a renegade at heart, shunned and avoided by his
own kinsmen, the Shoshones who camped around Wild Rose; but it was from
him, from this old tyrant that she despised so cordially, that
Wilhelmina received her first news of Wunpost.

Hungry Bill came up grinning, on his way down from his ranch, and fixed
her with his glittering black eyes.

"You savvy Wunpo?" he asked, "hi-ko man--busca gol'? Him sendum piece of
lock!"

He produced a piece of rock from a knot in his shirt-tail and handed it
over to her slowly. It was a small chunk of polished quartz, half green,
half turquoise blue; and in the center, like a jewel, a crystal of
yellow gold gleamed out from its matrix of blue. Wilhelmina gazed at it
blankly, then flushed and turned away as she felt Hungry Bill's eyes
upon her. He was a disreputable old wretch, who imputed to others the
base motives which governed his own acts; and when she read his black
heart Wilhelmina straightened up and gave him back the stone.

"No, you keepum!" protested Hungry. "Hi-ko ketchum pl