``Why, what have we to do with all of this?'' cried MacWilliams.
``It's what I keep telling you every day. We're not in that
class, and you're only making it harder for yourself when they've
gone. I call it cruelty to animals myself, having women like
that around. Up North, where everybody's white, you don't notice
it so much, but down here--Lord!''

``That's absurd,'' Clay answered. ``Why should you turn your
back on civilization when it comes to you, just because you're
not going back to civilization by the next steamer? Every person
you meet either helps you or hurts you. Those girls help us,
even if they do make the life here seem bare and mean.''

``Bare and mean!'' repeated MacWilliams incredulously. ``I think
that's just what they don't do. I like it all the better because
they're mixed up in it. I never took so much interest in your
mines until she took to riding over them, and I didn't think
great shakes of my old ore-road, either, but now that she's got
to acting as engineer, it's sort of nickel-plated the whole
outfit. I'm going to name the new engine after her--when it gets
here--if her old man will let me.''

``What do you mean? Miss Langham hasn't been to the mines but
once, has she?''

``Miss Langham!'' exclaimed MacWilliams. ``No, I mean the other,
Miss Hope. She comes out with Ted nearly every day now, and
she's learning how to run a locomotive. Just for fun, you
know,'' he added, reassuringly.