. I'll squat on the goods till mornin', come
what may."

In truth Jo did not just like to trust him. The goods, amounting in
value far up into the thousands, were now under her complete control,
and she was accountable for every penny to the purchasers of them. But
she had not the heart to refuse Tweet's offer, and she wanted her
skinners to rest for the remainder of the night, in view of the hard
work that lay before them. So she accepted, and Mr. Tweet took his
post.

He was there like the boy on the burning deck when they came with the
teams early next morning, walking about briskly to keep warm through
the cold desert dawn, whistling merrily. Jo had brought his breakfast
on a plate, and hot coffee in a bottle.

Carter Potts, the blacksmith, was left behind to set up his shop and
care for the extra mules and horses.

Quickly the teams were hooked on, and with complaining groans and heavy
wagons, each now weighing with its load upward of six and a third tons,
moved through the sleepy town toward the distant mountains.

"Hooker," said Tweet, as he sat beside his friend behind the laboring
blacks, "this is a man's life. This is doin' somethin'! This is
gettin' somewhere! This is livin'! I envy you, Hiram. I envy you
that big body of yours and the way you can handle ten big horses as if
you were drivin' a trick donkey hitched to a clown's cart. Wild Cat,
you're a lucky man. And what a glorious woman, Hooker, to throw the
magic over it all! You're the man for her, my boy--the only man I ever
met that oughta have the nerve to try to win her. And she fell for
you, you big buffalo with the voice of a turtle-dove! Play her
carefully, boy, and you can win. Don't go at it like you did with
Cream Puffs, up there in Frisco. But you'll win her, Hiram--it's in
you to do it. Now, Hooker, can you slip me a five-spot when we get to
the camps?"

"I haven't much more than that, Playmate," Hiram averred.

"Well, you got a job, ain't you? I haven't. Money didn't seem to
worry you much when you were puttin' on your Follies o' Nineteen-twenty
with Lucy, up there where the white lights gleam."

"What are you going to do with it?" asked Hiram.

"This is your foolish day, ain't it? I'll tell you what I'm _not_
goin' to do with it. I'm not goin' to hire an automobile at four
dollars an hour and take a lassie out for a ride over the desert."

"I'll try and let you have it."

"Just how much jack you got on you