"Glad to meet you," said Sandy cordially, completing the introductions, "and ye better sit in with us for a snack, old-timer. Any luck?" "Ain't kickin' none," said Sagebrush, combing the sand from his wealth of sodden gray whiskers. His eyes followed Murray. "Say, is them real bakin' powder biscuits ye got? Well, I never! They look real good, too, for them kind; I allus had a notion folks ought to study sour-dough more back in the settlements, but mebbe there's somethin' to bakin' powder----" Sagebrush drifted along garrulously, glad of a chance to talk. Presently, when the coffee had been finished and pipes were lighted, he gazed around and grew personal. "This here is a good place," he observed, "if it's quartz you're after, gents. If it don't intrude none, what ye lookin' for?" Mackintavers chuckled, and produced his ruby silver samples. "This," he answered laconically. "Know it?" Sagebrush took the samples, inspected them, and then began to grin widely. "Ruby silver!" he ejaculated. "Ye don't mean to say--my gosh! Pilgrims, I'm right pained to hear tell o' this, but----" "Huh?" queried Sandy with a grunt. "What d'ye mean?" "Ye didn't allow them samples come from here, did ye?" "Understood so," returned Sandy, frowning. "What d'ye mean, huh?" Sagebrush grinned again. "Why," he said, hefting the samples, "las' time I seen these here spec'mens, they was reposin' on the desk o' Piute Tomkins, back to Two Palms. Piute brung 'em home from Tonopah three year ago, and was right proud of 'em, too. I reckon that there no-account Deadoak pirated 'em from him and passed 'em off on you. Deadoak is right smart, some ways----" Murray looked at the gaping Mackintavers, and rolled over with a shout of laughter. "Stung, Sandy!" he cried, sitting up. "Hurray! The bad man of New Mexico stung by a simple Arizona native--whoop! The biter got bit--oh, Sandy, Sandy! And look at the big blisters on my perfectly good hands----" Sandy growled something inarticulate, then rose to his feet. "I'm goin' to look at them quartz lodes," he grunted. "See ye later!" Sagebrush gazed after him with sober mirth. "Too bad ye got took in," he observed. "But I'm right glad ye take it calm, pilgrim. If ye didn't get bit too deep, ye got a fine place right here. Me, I like to git farther away from settlements--too many folks around spoil the desert. But if ye like this here oasis, she ain't bad. Say, if you're a doctor, wisht ye'd look at that there Jenny burro o' mine. She ain't been right peart for two-three days; kind o' down on her feed. Ye might light right on what she needed----" Murray assented and strolled over to the burro in the train of Sagebrush. The whimsical irony of it struck him full; Douglas Murray, peer of the finest surgeons in the land, giving advice upon a sick burro! But he gave the advice, and grinned as he watched the aged desert rat shuffle off down the valley with his animals.