rned Billy with a wild gleam in her eye, "and if you
don't like my overalls----"

"I do!" he broke in, "I like 'em fine--like 'em better than those flimsy
danged skirts! But if you're too good to use my road----"

"It isn't that," interrupted Billy, "I'm glad you built the road, but
Father looks at it differently. He told Mr. Eells he wouldn't be a party
to any such scheme to defraud. But--now it's all built--don't tell him
how you did it; because I want him to have a little happiness. He's been
working so long and this came, as he said, just like an act of
Providence; so let's not tell him, and when he's taken out his ore he
can pay Mr. Eells, if he wishes to."

"If he's crazy!" corrected Wunpost. "What, pay that crook? Say, do you
see those two men on the trail? They're hired by Eells to tag along
behind me and trail me to my mine. Now what right has he got to claim
that mine? Did he ever give me a dollar to spend, while I was up there
in the high country looking for it? He did not, and he stole every
dollar I had before I ever went out to prospect. Didn't he rob us both
of the Willie Meena--take it all without giving us a cent? Well, what's
the sense of trying to treat him white, when you know he's out to do
you? His name is Eells and he skins 'em alive! But you wait--I'm out to
skin _him_!"

"You're awfully convincing," conceded Billy smiling tremulously, "but
somehow it doesn't seem right. Just because he robs you----"

"Aw, forget it; forget it!" exclaimed Wunpost impatiently, "didn't I
tell you this is no Sunday school picnic? What're you going to do, let
him go on robbing everybody until he has all the money in the world? No,
you've got to play the game--go after him with the hay hooks and get his
back hair if you can! I've trimmed him of twenty thousand and a ten
thousand dollar road, but where did he get all that coin? He took it out
of our mine, the old Willie Meena, and a whole lot more besides. Well,
whose money was it, anyway--didn't I own the mine first? All right,
then, I reckon it was _mine_!"

He patted his pocket, where his roll of bills lay, and smiled roguishly
as he grabbed up the dog.

"Fine pup, eh?" he began, "well, he picked me out himself--followed
along when I was going down the street. Tried to lose him and couldn't
do it, he followed me everywhere, so I kept him and called him Good
Luck. Get the idea? Luck is my pup, he lays down and rolls over whenever
I say the word. Going to make