f the ore.
Old Charley knows all about it."

"Yes, they all do," he observed and as his lip went up her eyes dilated
suddenly in a panic.

"Oh, you went to that school--I forgot all about it--where they study
about the mines! Are you in the mining business now?"

"Why, yes," he acknowledged, "but that doesn't make much difference. I
find I can learn something from most everybody."

"Well, of course, then," she stammered, "I shouldn't have said that; but
the whole Paymaster dump is covered with that heavy quartz, and
everybody knows it's barren. Are you just looking around or----"

She hesitated politely and as he reached for another specimen she
noticed a ring on his finger. It was of massive gold and, set in
clutching claws, there were three stupendous diamonds. Not imitation
stones nor small, off-colored diamonds, but brilliants of the very first
water, clear as dew, yet holding in their hearts the faintest suggestion
of blue.

"Oh!" she gasped, and as he did not seem to notice, she drew her skirts
away with a flourish. "I'm surprised," she mocked, "that you condescend
to speak to us--of course you own your own mines!"

"Nope," he replied, shrugging his shoulders at her sarcasm, "I'm nothing
but a prospector, yet. And you don't need to be so surprised."

"No!" she retorted, giving way to swift resentment. "I guess I
don't--when you consider how you got your money. Here's Mother out
cooking for you, and I'm the waiter; and you're traveling around in
racing cars with thousand-dollar rings on your hands. But if old
Honest John hadn't sold all his stock while he was advising my father
to hold on----"

"He did not!"

"Yes, he did! He did, too! And now, after Father has been lost in Death
Valley, and we have come down to this, your father writes over and
offers to buy our stock for just the same as nothing. That's _my_
ring you're wearing, and the money that paid for it----"

"Oh, all right then," he sneered, stripping off the ring and handing it
abruptly over to her, "if it's your ring, take it! But don't you say my
father----"

"Well, he did," she declared, "and you can keep your old ring! It won't
bring back my father--now!"

"No, it won't," he agreed, "but while we're about it I just want to tell
you something. My father went broke, buying back Paymaster stock from
friends he'd advised to go in--and he's got the stock to prove it--and
when he heard that the Colonel was dead he decided to buy in your
mo