ker Hill tartly, "they's
nobody keeping you, I'm sure."

"No, and you bet your life there won't be," came back Big Boy, starting
off, "I'm playing a lone hand to win."

CHAPTER VI

THE ORACULUM

The palpitating heat lay like a shimmering fleece over the deserted camp
of Pinal and Denver Russell, returning from Globe, beheld it as one in a
dream. Somewhere within the shadow of Apache Leap were two treasures
that he was destined to find, one of gold and one of silver; and if he
chose wisely between them they were both to be his. And if he chose
unwisely, or tried to hold them both, then both would be lost and he
would suffer humiliation and shame. Yet he came back boldly, fresh from
a visit with Mother Trigedgo who had blessed him and called him her son.
She had wept when they parted, for her burdens had been heavy and his
gift had lightened her lot; but though she wished him well she could not
control his fate, for that lay with the powers above. Nor could she
conceal from him the portion of evil which was balanced against the
good.

"Courage and constancy will attend you through life'" she had written in
her old-country scrawl; "but in the end will prove your undoing, for you
will meet your death at the hands of your dearest friend."

That was the doom that hung over him like a hair-suspended sword--to be
killed by his dearest friend--and as he paused at the mouth of Queen
Creek Canyon he wished that his fortune had not been told. Of what good
to him would be the two hidden treasures--or even the beautiful young
artist with whom he was destined to fall in love--if his life might be
cut off at any moment by some man that he counted his friend?
_When_ his death should befall, Mother Trigedgo had not told, for
the signs had been obscure; but when it did come it would be by the hand
of the man that he called his best friend. A swift surge of resistance
came over him again as he gazed at the promised land and he shut his
teeth down fiercely. He would have no friends, no best of friends, but
all men that he met he would treat the same and so evade the harsh hand
of fate. Forewarned was forearmed, he would have no more pardners such
as men pick up in rambling around; but in this as in all else he would
play a lone hand and so postpone the evil day.

He strode on down the trail into the silent town where the houses stood
roofless and bare, and as he glanced at the ancient gallows-frame above
the abandoned mine