s stock which had been purloined by
Blount, was beyond his strictly masculine mind; but women sometimes
think by jumps. They skip a few processes, like a mathematical
prodigy, and then arrive at some mammoth result. But, even if they
exaggerated their grievance--was there anything behind it, any peg on
which to hang this senseless hate?

Well, of course he had deceived them about the mine. He had known it
contained scheelite the moment he picked up that white rock that
Virginia had placed in her collection, but naturally he had not
announced it from the house-tops. With the Widow as a partner, or even
as a stockholder, the best-natured man in the state of Nevada could not
have worked the Paymaster at a profit. For that reason alone he had been
fully justified in letting her freeze herself out; and if Virginia had
taken his advice--but then, the poor girl had been distracted. She had
been worn out and discouraged, hag-ridden by her mother and facing a
trip to the city; and she had sold out for what she could get. She was a
good girl, a brave girl, and a sweet and lovely one too; and it was
foolish to blame her for anything. The thing to do, after all, was to
find ways and means of bringing her back to her own. Just a word from
Virginia and he could change her whole life, he could get back all her
stock and her mother's as well and pour money into their laps--but first
he must win her love. He must teach her to trust him, break down her
suspicion and show her that he was her friend.

Wiley thought a long time and the next morning at dawn he was up in his
car and away. Virginia was a child. She did not reason about this and
that, but was swayed by the impulses of the moment. Her life was ruled,
not by her head but by her heart; and he had forgotten until that moment
the sacks full of cats that he had taken from her house to the ranch.
They were all her pets, and he had taken them as a trust when she was
about to start for Los Angeles; but the mine had made him forget. They
were safe at the ranch, with his sisters to look after them; but how
many times since their estrangement began must some question have risen
to her lips as to how they were, or if he would bring them back, or
whether any had died or been lost? Yet she had turned her head away and
refused to speak to him, even to demand back the pets she loved.

The road was bad out across the desert, and on through Vegas to the
ranch, but he came thundering back the ne