marry a duchess, or something? I wish I'd had your chance, that's all."

"What d'you mean by that?" Buddy queried, sharply.

"I mean this," Allie flamed at him. "We're nobodies and we've got
nothing but our money. A counterfeit is as good as ever we'll get--and
it's as good as we're entitled to. I'd rather know what it is to live
for an hour than to go on forever just pretending to live. If I've got
to be unhappy, then give me something to be unhappy over; something to
look back on. I'd rather be--But, pshaw! You don't understand. You
couldn't."

"I dunno what's got into you lately," Buddy declared, with a frown.

"Nothing's got into me. Only, what's the use of starving when the
world's full of good things and you've got the price to buy them? _I_
won't do it. If ever I get my chance, you watch me!"

Gray's trip from the railroad was more like a voyage than a motor
journey, for the creek beds, usually dry, were angry torrents, and the
'dobe flats were quagmires through which his vehicle plowed hub deep;
nevertheless, he was fresh and alert when he arrived. After a buoyant
greeting to Allie, he and Buddy inspected the well, then he issued
orders for work to be resumed.

"We're gettin' close to something," young Briskow declared. "She's
making gas an' rumblin' like she'd let go any minute. We got reservoys
built an' the boiler's moved back, so we can douse the fire when she
starts. I figger she'll drownd us out."

"What are the indications at Nelson's well?" Gray turned his eyes in
the direction of a derrick on the adjoining property, the top of which
showed over the mesquite.

"Nothin' extra. They won't tell us anything, but they're deeper 'n we
are."

"How do you know?"

Buddy winked wisely. "We counted the layers of cable on the bull-wheel
drum. Checked up their casing, too, an' watched their cuttin's. They
got their eye on us, too, an' they'll be over when we blow in."

That was an anxious afternoon, for as the drill bit deeper into the
rock it provoked indications of a terrific force imprisoned far below.
To the observers it seemed as if that sharp-edged tool was tap-tapping
upon the thin shell of some vast reservoir already leaking and charged
to the bursting point with a mighty pressure. An odor of gas escaped
from the casing mouth, occasionally there came hoarse, throaty
gurglings of the thick liquid at the bottom of the well. The bailer was
run frequently.

Word had gone forth that there was somet