lt, an' how willin' he was an' all."

"Yes, indeed, the boys must tell you all about that famous event, Mr.
Jones, while I talk to Mrs. Edwards about something else."

Before going into the details of the race, which never palled upon Ben,
they described with much gusto the defeat of Oolik Lomen in the first
Great Adventure the Wonder Workers had undertaken; and Ben bitterly
regretted that he could not also have been one of the brave knights who
had so valorously risen in defense of the weak and distressed against
the strong and unprincipled.

But Dan consoled him somewhat by the information that the incident had
been almost spoiled by interference; and that the next time they
performed deeds of chivalry he hoped it would be when no female was
about, unless, indeed, it might be a victim to be rescued from a
terrible plight.

In the brief chat the Woman had with Mrs. Edwards she learned a little
of the hardships that had fallen to the lot of the boy and his mother,
and realized in spite of their courage and reticence that they had
endured a hard struggle for almost a mere existence.

"Don't you think it would be easier for you outside, where there are not
so many physical discomforts to be considered?"

"Perhaps. But my husband left a little mining ground that may, in time,
prove worth while if developed; and I have remained where I could look
after it, and see that the assessment work was properly done. As it is,
a man named Barclay--Black Mart Barclay, they call him--jumped the claim
next to his, and if it had not been for Mr. Jones I should have lost it.
He loaned me the money to take the matter into the courts, where I won
out."

"And the boy?"

"He is my one thought," responded Mrs. Edwards. "As a young child he was
rather delicate, and we could not send him to school because of the
distance. Since then his association with the men at Golconda has done
much to offset what I have tried to do for him. Before my marriage I
taught school in a village in New Hampshire, though you would hardly
suspect it to hear Ben speak. I wanted to get a position in the school
here; but nowadays there is so much special training required that I
found I was not fitted for the work; and I have just had to take what I
could get from time to time. At any rate," with a cheerful smile, "we
are still alive and have kept our property."

"It was brave," murmured the Woman, whose eyes were misty; "very brave."

"Now that Ben is going