specially since the intilligent and discriminatin' mine-boss
was sendin' down quartz that's more'n half porphyry! Yer little donkey
injin, and yer little sugar mashers, and yer little lemon squeezer of a
crusher--yah! It's a grocery store ye've got, and not a stamp mill.
Loose off yer nut on the lower jaw, man; loose her off!"

McGinnis was a man of action. In a moment he was tapping at the
clenched bolt with the head of his bright steel hammer. Slowly at
first, and sullenly, for it had long been used to treatment that
McGinnis called "unsportsmanlike"; then gently and kindly as it felt
the hand of the master, the head of the bolt began to turn, until at
length the workman was satisfied. Then he turned also the
corresponding nut on the opposite face of the jaw, swung the great
steel jaw back to the place where he fancied it, and made all fast
again. "She's but a rat-trap," said he to himself, "but it's only fair
to give the rat-trap its show."

McGinnis went out and sat down upon a pile of ore. It was a bright and
cloudless morning, such as may be seen nowhere in the world but in
Heart's Desire. The Patos Mountains, across the valley, seemed so
close that one might lay his hand upon them. The sun was bright and
unwinking, and all the air so golden sweet that McGinnis pushed back
his hat and gloried simply that he was alive. He did not even note the
cottontail that came out from behind a bush to peer at him, nor mark
the sweeping shadow of a passing eagle that swung high above the little
valley. His eye now and again fell upon the abandoned mill, gaunt,
idle and silent; yet he regarded it lazily, the spell of the spot and
the languor of the air filling all his soul.

But at last the sun grew more ardent, and McGinnis, knowing the secret
of the dry Southwest, sought shade in order that he might be cool. He
rose and strolled again into the mill, looking about him as before,
idly and critically. "Av ye was all me own, it's quite a coffee mill I
cud make of ye, me dear," said he, familiarly. And at this moment a
thought seemed to strike him.

"It has always been me dream to be a captain of industhry,"
soliloquized McGinnis. "I've always longed to hear the busy hum of me
own wheels, and to feel that I was the employer and not merely the
employeed." He mused for a few moments, too lazy to think far at one
flight.

"It wud be nice," he resumed later, "to see the smoke of your own
facthory ascendin' to the