descripts, bearing out The Lily's
statement that good men were scarce, but all were hired as they came,
and the Croix d'Or began to thrill with activity.

A fat cook--and no miner can explain why a camp cook is always
fat--beamed from the mess-house door. A blacksmith, accepting the
ready name of "Smuts," oiled the rusted wheels of his blower, and
swore patiently and softly at a new helper as he selected the drills
for sharpening. Three Burley drill runners tinkered with their
machines, and scraped off the verdigris and accumulated dust of
storage; millmen began to reset the tables, strip the damaged plates,
and lay in new water pipes to drip ceaselessly over the powered ore.
Over all these watched Bill with his bandaged face, rumbling orders
here and there, and tirelessly active. Out on the pipe line, winding
by cut and trestle from the reservoir in the high hills, Dick
superintended repairs and laid plans.

Leaving his gang replacing sections near the power-house, he climbed
up the length of the line to discover, if possible, how far the labors
of the vandal had extended. Foot by foot he had traversed it, almost
to the reservoir itself, when he paused to breathe and look off at the
mountains spread below and around.

The Cross, in the distance, was softened again to a miracle of dim
yellow laid against a field of purple, and, like a speck, a huge eagle
swept in circles round its point to come to rest on its extreme
summit. He turned from admiring its flight to inspect a bowlder that
had tumbled down from the slope above and come to rest in a big dent;
it had smashed in the top of the pipe. He picked up a piece of a
storm-broken limb, used it as a lever, and sent the rock crashing
across the pipe to go bounding down the hillside as it gained momentum
with every leap.

There was a startled snort, a sudden threshing of the brush, and it
parted to disclose a girl astride a horse that was terrified and
endeavoring his best to dismount his rider. Dick, surmising that horse
and rider had suffered a narrow escape from the bowlder, ran toward
them remorsefully, but the girl already had the animal in control
after a display of splendid horsemanship.

"Thank you," she said, as he hastened toward the horse's head, intent
on seizing the snaffle. "Please don't touch him. I can quiet him
down."

"I am so sorry," he pleaded, with his hat in his hand. "I had no idea
that any one ever rode up this way."

"Don't apologize," sh