you can go to and tell all your troubles. He 's laying next door
to death, and Anita, just like any woman that's got a great, big, good
heart in her, is willing to face worse than death to help him. It's as
plain to me as the nose on Harry's face."

"Which is quite plain," agreed Fairchild ruefully. Harry rubbed the
libeled proboscis, pawed at his mustache and fidgeted in his chair.

"I understand that, all right," he announced at last. "But why should
anybody want to buy the mine?"

It brought Fairchild to the realization of a new development, and he
brought forth the letter, once more to stare at it.

"Fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money," came at last. "It would
pretty near pay us for coming out here, Harry."

"That it would."

"And what then?" Mother Howard, still looking through uncolored
glasses, took the letter and scanned it. "You two ain't quitters, are
you?"

"'Oo, us?" Harry bristled.

"Yes, you. If you are, get yourselves a piece of paper and write to
Denver and take the offer. If you ain't--keep on fighting."

"I believe you 're right, Mother Howard."

Fairchild had reached for the letter again and was staring at it as
though for inspiration. "That amount of money seems to be a great
deal. Still, if a person will offer that much for a mine when there 's
nothing in sight to show its value, it ought to mean that there's
something dark in the woodpile and that the thing 's worth fighting
out. And personally speaking, I 'm willing to fight!"

"I never quit in my life!" Harry straightened in his chair and his
mustache stuck forth pugnaciously. Mother Howard looked down at him,
pressed her lips, then smiled.

"No," she announced, "except to run away like a whipped pup after you
'd gotten a poor lonely boarding-house keeper in love with you!"

"Mother 'Oward, I 'll--"

But the laughing, gray-haired woman had scrambled through the doorway
and slammed the door behind her, only to open it a second later and
poke her head within.

"Need n't think because you can hold up a dance hall and get away with
it, you can use cave-man stuff on me!" she admonished. And in that one
sentence was all the conversation necessary regarding the charges
against Harry, as far as Mother Howard was concerned. She did n't
believe them, and Harry's face showed that the world had become bright
and serene again. He swung his great arms as though to loosen the big
muscles of his shoulders. He pecked at