r 'em?" he asked, "it's them Germans or
something----"

"Never mind!" said Wiley sharply. "I'm talking about the Colonel, and
I'll tell you what I'll do. I can't give the mine to Virginia because
she won't take it; but the Colonel is a gentleman. He's reasonable,
Charley, and I'd get along with him fine; so come on, now--go over and
tell him!"

He patted him on the back and a look of indecision crept into Charley's
drink-dimmed eyes, but in the end he shook his head.

"Nope," he muttered, "the Colonel is dead!" And Wiley threw up his
hands.

"Well, then here," he ran on, "you know me Charley; and you know I'm
not trying to steal that mine. Now here's what I want you to do. You
tell Virginia I want to see her; and then some night you bring her
over and--well, maybe that will do just as well."

"Will you give her back her mine?" inquired Charley pointedly, and Wiley
rose up in a rage.

"Yes!" he yelled, "for cripes' sake, what's the matter with you? You
talk like everybody was a crook. Didn't I give her back her stock? Well
then, I'll give her back her mine! But she's got to accept it, hasn't
she?"

"That was her I heard coming," answered Charley simply, but when Wiley
looked out she was gone.

CHAPTER XXI

THE DRAGON'S TEETH

It is the curse of success that it raises up enemies as Jason's dragon
teeth brought forth armed men. When he was skating around the country,
examining mines and taking out options, Wiley could safely count every
man his friend; but now that he had made his big _coup_ on the
Paymaster they were against him, from Virginia down. If he went to her
politely with a thousand-dollar bill and asked her to take it as a gift
she would refuse to so much as look at him. And yet, as a matter of
fact, he was the same old laughing Wiley--only now he did not laugh. It
was not right, but it could not be helped.

A long and weary month, full of vexatious delays and nerve-racking
demands from his creditors, left its mark on Wiley's face; but in six
weeks the mine and mill were running. Three shifts of men broke the ore
at the face and sent it up the shaft to the grizzly and from there it
was fed down through the enormous rock-crusher and then on through the
ball-mills and rollers to the concentrating tables below. It was crushed
and sorted and crushed again and ground fine in the revolving tubes, and
then it was screened and washed and separated on vanners until nothing
but the concentrates rem