er chin
in her hands, her eyes moody upon the rushing flames. 'Just what
happened.'

He sat by her and told her. His heart was still filled with his
bitterness and his voice told the fact. Presently she withdrew her
gaze from the gulch and turned it upon him; she had never seen him so
relentlessly stern. Almost he frightened her. Then she noticed again
the stain upon his shoulder and this time insisted upon helping him
make a bandage. With his knife she slit the shirt sleeve; together
they got a handkerchief bound about the wound. It was not deep nor was
it in any way dangerous, but Helen winced and paled before the job was
done. Then their eyes met and clung together and for a little while
they were silent, and gradually the colour came back into the girl's
cheeks.

'Are you tired?' he asked presently. 'Or hungry? If not, and you care
to sit here with me for an hour or two, maybe a little more, I can
promise to show you a sight you will never forget.'

'What is it?' she asked curiously, wondering if he meant a moonrise
over the far desert mountains.

'It is the birth of a mining camp. For there will be one here before
morning.'

'Surely not so soon? Who will know?'

'Who?' he grunted disgustedly. 'Everybody! Down in San Ramon Pony Lee
knows; at the court-house it is known. Men give tips to their friends.
Courtot's crowd knows. Out here my men know; Carr and Barbee know.
Already there are a hundred men, maybe several times a hundred, who
know. And you may be sure that already they are coming like a train of
ants. Once gold has been uncovered the secret is out. Pony Lee swears
the desert winds carry the news.'

Howard was entirely correct in his surmise, saving in the time he
judged they must wait. Less than an hour had passed and the grass fire
was still spreading with a fierce crackling sound and myriad sparks,
when the vanguard of the gold-seekers came. Helen and Howard heard
horses' hoofs, rattling stones, impatient voices, and withdrew a
hundred yards from the gulch and into the shadows of a ring of boulders.

With the first came Bettins. His voice was the loudest, coming now and
then distinctly; he employed the name of Howard and cursed it; he said
something about his 'pals' Devine and True. A man to whom he was
talking laughed at him. Thereafter half a dozen forms swarmed down
into the gulch; the fire on either side of them was dying out along the
gulch's edge; they cursed its he