A shadow swept across the side of the tent; it was Landis waving his arm
carelessly.

"If that's all, I can fix you up and send you back with enough to carry
the colonel along. Look here--why, I have five hundred with me. Take it,
Lou. There's more behind it, but the colonel mustn't think that there's
as much money in the mines as people say. No idea how much living costs
up here. Heavens, no! And the prices for labor! And then they shirk the
job from dawn to dark. I have to watch 'em every minute, I tell you!"

He sighed noisily.

"But the end of it is, dear"--how that small word tore into the heart of
Donnegan, who crouched outside--"that you must go back tomorrow morning.
I'd send you tonight, if I could. As a matter of fact, I don't trust the
red-haired rat who--"

The girl interrupted while Donnegan still had control of his
hair-trigger temper.

"You forget, Jack. Father sent me here, but he did not tell me to come
back."

At this Jack Landis burst into an enormous laughter.

"You don't mean, Lou, that you actually intend to stay on?"

"What else can I mean?"