"Nary a word," said the girl, indifferently. "I reckon everybody has forgotten him around here except Snake Murphy, who works for Johnny the Greek. Snake used to know this guy, and it was for shootin' him that Louisiana was run out of the country. Fact is, I've heard most of what I know from Snake." "I'd better interview him, I suppose," said Wilding. "If you can get any info out of him as to where that mine is you ought to tell me as quick as that French dame," said Marian. "Believe me, I'm needing gold mines a lot more than she does. She ain't so hard up that she can't go chasing around the country and livin' at swell hotels and hiring lawyers and things while I got to work for what I get. Anyway, half of that mine belongs to me." "The mine belongs to whoever finds it," said Wilding. "It was never filed on, and any claim D'Albret might have had was lost at his death. In any event, I imagine that it has been so long ago that the chance of locating it now is practically nonexistent." "Me, too," said Marian. "Unless----" and she paused. "Unless what?" "Whatever brings this dame clear over from France to look for a mine after twenty years? D'you reckon that any one in their sober senses would squander money on a thing like that if they didn't have some inside info as to where to look? Seems to me this Frog lady must have got some tip that we haven't had." "Perhaps she has," said Wilding. "In fact, she would hardly come here, as you say, with nothing definite to go on. But I'm not interested in the mine. What I want to know is where this Louisiana went after he left here." "Maybe Snake Murphy knows," said Marian. Wilding was inclined to agree with her. At least no other source of information appeared to offer any better prospects, so with some distaste he sought out Murphy at the pool room. He began by tactfully remarking about the changes from the old times, to which Murphy agreed. "You've lived here since before the Falls was built, haven't you, Murphy?" asked Wilding, after Snake had expressed some contempt for new times and new ways. "Me!" said Snake, boastfully. "Why, when I come here there wasn't anything here but sunshine and jack rabbits. I _was_ the town of Sulphur Falls. I run a ferry and a road house down here when there wasn't another place within five miles in any direction." "You knew the old-timers, then?" "Nobody knew them any better. They all had to stop at my place whenever they were crossin' the river. There wasn't no ford." Wilding leaned over and grew confidential. "Snake," he said, in a low tone, "I've heard that you know something about this old-time gunman, Louisiana, and the killing of French Pete back about the first of the century. Is there anything in that?" Snake eyed him coolly and appraisingly before he answered. "There seems to be a lot of interest cropping up in this Louisiana and French Pete all of a sudden," he remarked. "What's the big idea?" "I'm looking for Louisiana," said Wilding.