to get it out of there_!"

"How?" asked Amos.

"Act of Congress, maybe. Maybe a railroad will get a permit to go
through, eh? There are several ways. We'll die rich, yet, Amos."

Amos pulled at his pipe and shook his head. "You will but I won't. It
isn't in our blood."

"Shucks, Amos. Where's your nerve?"

Amos looked at Levine silently for a moment. Then he said huskily,

"My nerve is gone with Patience. And if she isn't in heaven, there
isn't one, that's all."

Lydia looked up from her story with a quick flash of tragedy in her
eyes.

"Well," said John, smiling at her gently, "if you don't want to be
rich, Amos, Lydia does. I'll give her the cottage here, the first
fifty thousand I make off of Indian pine lands."

"I swan," exclaimed Amos, "if you do that, I'll buy a cow and a pig and
some chickens and I can pretty near make a living right here."

"You're foolish, Amos. This isn't New England. This is the West. All
you've got to do is to keep your nerve, and any one with sense can make
a killing. Opportunity screams at you."