to be popular, pointed his nose at
the big object hugging the farther shore, and howled with a right
goodwill.

"They see! They see! Hooray!"

The Boy waved his arms, embraced Nig, then snatched up the oars. The
steamer's engines were reversed; now she was still. The Boy pulled
lustily. A crowded ship. Crew and passengers pressed to the rails. The
steamer canted, and the Captain's orders rang out clear. Several
cheechalkos laid their hands on their guns as the wild fellow in the
ragged buckskins shot round the motionless wheel, and brought his canoe
'long-side, while his savage-looking dog still kept the echoes of the
Lower Ramparts calling.

"Three cheers for the Oklahoma!"

At the sound of the Boy's voice a red face hanging over the stern broke
into a broad grin.

"Be the Siven! Air ye the little divvle himself, or air ye the divvle's
gran'fatherr?"

The apparition in the canoe was making fast and preparing to board the
ship.

"Can't take another passenger. Full up!" said the Captain. He couldn't
hear what was said in reply, but he shook his head. "Been refusin' 'em
right along." Then, as if reproached by the look in the wild young
face, "We thought you were in trouble."

"So I am if you won't----"

"I tell you we got every ounce we can carry."

"Oh, take me back to Minook, anyway!"

He said a few words about fare to the Captain's back. As that magnate
did not distinctly say "No"--indeed, walked off making conversation
with the engineer--twenty hands helped the new passenger to get Nig and
the canoe on board.

"Well, got a gold-mine?" asked Potts.

"Yes, sir."

"Where's the Colonel?" Mac rasped out, with his square jaw set for
judgment.

"Colonel's all right--at Minook. We've got a gold-mine apiece."

"Anny gowld in 'em?"

"Yes, sir, and no salt, neither."

"Sorry to see success has gone to your head," drawled Potts, eyeing the
Boy's long hair. "I don't see any undue signs of it elsewhere."

"Faith! I do, thin. He's turned wan o' thim hungry, grabbin'
millionaires."

"What makes you think that?" laughed the Boy, poking his brown fingers
through the knee-hole of his breeches.

"Arre ye contint wid that gowld-mine at Minook? No, be the Siven!
What's wan gowld-mine to a millionaire? What forr wud ye be prospectin
that desert oiland, you and yer faithful man Froyday, if ye wasn't
rooned intoirely be riches?"

The Boy tore himself away from his old friends, and followed the
arbiter of his