excitement followed. The most unthought-of places,
the old deserted mines, were found to be bonanzas. Andy caught the
fever. He tramped all over the Pine Tree Ranch prospecting, but gave
up in despair. Then he thought once more of the Cove Mine. He made
many a secret trip there. Then he ordered a box of gold dust from the
Yellow Jacket and stole down to the Cove again and again, till
discovered by Job.

In all those years of living for himself and to himself, Andrew Malden
had tried to be square with the world. Business was business with him.
He made no concessions to any man; pity and altruism were not in his
vocabulary. Unconsciously to himself, he had grown to be a very hard
man, and the heart within him found it difficult to make itself felt
through the calloused surface of his life. But with it all Andrew
Malden had been honest. His word was as good as his bond in all
Grizzly county. No man questioned his statements. Everyone got a
hundred cents on the dollar when Andrew Malden paid his debts.

But no man knew that in those days of the hard spring the gray-haired
pioneer was passing through one of the greatest temptations of his
life. Men were buying up mines all about him, just at a glance; mines
fully as worthless as the Cove Mine. Anyhow, who knew the Cove Mine
was worthless? It had had a marvelous record in early days. A little
capital spent might bring immense reward. The old man sat, again and
again, alone on the front porch and turned it over in his mind. Then
he would creep off down to the mine, and feel his way in the dark
tunnel, looking for a new lead. He looked at the places he had salted,
until he almost brought himself to believe them genuine. Nobody would
know the difference, he argued. Job did not know what he was doing
when he found him. He would take the risk; he might lose the ranch
itself if he did not. And, coming home with the first stain of
dishonesty on his soul, Andrew Malden astonished Job by ordering him
to have Jack and Dave hitched up at three in the morning; he was going
to drive to the plains and the railroad station, then take a train to
the city, and would be back in a few days.

Ten days later, Jack and Dave and the carriage, all coated with slush
and mud, drove up to the door, and Andrew Malden, with a strangely
affable smile on his face, clambered stiffly out and introduced Job to
Mr. Henry Devonshire, an Englishman traveling for his health and
profit. With a gruff greeting t