n't got any time to lose," she said, impatiently, as he
hesitated.

Perhaps it was her impatience that struck harshly upon him; perhaps, if
she had not accepted her good fortune so confidently, he would not have
spoken what was in his mind at the time; but he said gravely, "Wait a
minit, Malviny; I've suthin' to tell you 'bout this find of mine that's
sing'lar."

"Go on," she said, quickly.

"Lyin' among the rotten quartz of the vein was a pick," he said,
constrainedly; "and the face of the vein sorter looked ez if it had
been worked at. Follering the line outside to the base of the hill
there was signs of there having been an old tunnel; but it had fallen
in, and was blocked up."

"Well?" said Mrs. Mulrady, contemptuously.

"Well," returned her husband, somewhat disconnectedly, "it kinder
looked as if some feller might have discovered it before."

"And went away, and left it for others! That's likely--ain't it?"
interrupted his wife, with ill-disguised intolerance. "Everybody knows
the hill wasn't worth that for prospectin'; and it was abandoned when
we came here. It's your property and you've paid for it. Are you
goin' to wait to advertise for the owner, Alvin Mulrady, or are you
going to Sacramento at four o'clock to-day?"

Mulrady started. He had never seriously believed in the possibility of
a previous discovery; but his conscientious nature had prompted him to
give it a fair consideration. She was probably right. What he might
have thought had she treated it with equal conscientiousness he did not
consider. "All right," he said simply. "I reckon we'll go at once."

"And when you talk to Lawyer Cole and Jim, keep that silly stuff about
the pick to yourself. There's no use of putting queer ideas into other
people's heads because you happen to have 'em yourself."

When the hurried arrangements were at last completed, and Mr. Mulrady
and Mamie, accompanied by a taciturn and discreet Chinaman, carrying
their scant luggage, were on their way to the high road to meet the up
stage, the father gazed somewhat anxiously and wistfully into his
daughter's face. He had looked forward to those few moments to enjoy
the freshness and naivete of Mamie's youthful delight and enthusiasm as
a relief to his wife's practical, far-sighted realism. There was a
pretty pink suffusion in her delicate cheek, the breathless happiness
of a child in her half-opened little mouth, and a beautiful absorption
in her large gra