him the affection and--"

Here Donnegan coughed lightly; the fat man paused, and observing that
this hypocrisy did not draw the veil over the bright eyes of his guest,
he continued: "In a word, I made him one of my family. And when the need
for a man came I turned to him. He is young, strong, active, able to
take care of himself."

At this Donnegan pricked his ears.

"He went, accordingly, to The Corner and staked the claims and filed
them as I directed. I was right. There was gold. Much gold. It panned
out in nuggets."

He made an indescribable gesture, and through his strong fingers
Donnegan had a vision of yellow gold pouring.

"But there is seldom a discovery of importance claimed by one man alone.
This was no exception. A villain named William Lester, known as a
scoundrel over the length and breadth of the cattle country, claimed
that he had made the discovery first. He even went so far as to claim
that I had obtained my information from him and he tried to jump the
claims staked by Jack Landis, whereupon Jack, very properly, shot Lester
down. Not dead, unfortunately, but slightly wounded.

"In the meantime the rush for The Corner started. In a week there was a
village; in a fortnight there was a town; in a month The Corner had
become the talk of the ranges. Jack Landis found in the claims a mint.
He sent me back a mere souvenir."

The fat man produced from his vest pocket a little chunk of yellow and
with a dexterous motion whipped it at Donnegan. It was done so suddenly,
so unexpectedly that the wanderer was well-nigh taken by surprise. But
his hand flashed up and caught the metal before it struck his face. He
found in the palm of his hand a nugget weighing perhaps five ounces,
and he flicked it back to the colonel.

"He sent me the souvenir, but that was all. Since that time I have
waited. Nothing has come. I sent for word, and I learned that Jack
Landis had betrayed his trust, fallen in love with some undesirable
woman of the mining camp, denied my claim to any of the gold to which I
had sent him. Unpleasant news? Yes. Ungrateful boy? Yes. But my mind is
hardened against adversity.

"Yet this blow struck me close to the heart. Because Landis is engaged
to marry my daughter, Lou. At first I could hardly believe in his
disaffection. But the truth has at length been borne home to me. The
scoundrel has abandoned both Lou and me!"

Donnegan repeated slowly: "Your daughter loves this chap?"

The colone