t the doorway and a rapid-fire of
Chinese ceased. The dining-room was deserted, but from the kitchen in
the rear he could hear the shuffling slippers of Woo.

"Howdy-do, Misse' Jones!" exclaimed Woo in great excitement as he came
hurrying out to meet him. "I see you--few minutes ago--ove' Ike Blay's
place! You blakum falo bank, no?"

"No, I lose," answered Rimrock honestly. "Ike Bray, he gave me this to
eat on."

He showed the fifty-cent piece and sat down at a table whereat Woo
Chong began to giggle hysterically.

"Aw! Allee time foolee me," he grinned facetiously. "You no see me
the'? Me playum, too. Win ten dolla', you bet!"

"Well, all right, Woo," said Rimrock. "Just give me something to
eat--we won't quarrel about who won."

He leaned back in his chair and Woo Chong said no more till he appeared
again with a T-bone steak.

"You ketchum mine, pletty soon?" he questioned anxiously. "All lite,
me come back and cook."

Rimrock sighed and went to eating and Woo remembered the coffee, but
somehow even that failed to cheer.

A shadow of doubt came across Woo's watchful face and he hurried away
for more bread.

"You no bleakum bank?" he enquired at last and Rimrock shook his head.

"No, Woo," he said, "Ike Bray, he came down and win all my money back."

"Aw, too bad!" breathed Woo Chong and slipped quietly away; but after a
while he came back.

"Too bad!" he repeated. "You my fliend, Misse' Jones." And he laid
five dollars by his hand.

"Ah, no, no!" protested Rimrock, rising up from his place as if he had
suffered a blow. "No money, Woo. You give me my grub and that's
enough--I haven't got down to that!"

Woo Chong went away--he knew how to make gifts easy--and Rimrock stood
looking at the gold. Then he picked it up, slowly, and as slowly
walked out, and stood leaning against a post.

There is one street in Gunsight, running grandly down to the station;
but the rest is mostly vacant lots and scattered adobe houses, creeping
out into the infinitude of the desert. At noon, when he had come to
town, the street was deserted, but now it was coming to life.
Wild-eyed Mexican boys, mounted on bare-backed ponies, came galloping
up from the corrals; freight wagons drifted past, hauling supplies to
distant mining camps; and at last, as he stood there thinking, the
women began to come out of the hotel.

All day they stayed there, idle, useless, on the shaded veranda above
the street; and then,