"Oh, no; not for anything!" she answered eagerly. "You'll come back, won't you, Wiley? Mother was watching you through her glasses, and she says George fired first. They aren't trying to arrest you; all they want you to do is to give up and stand a brief trial. And I'll help you, Wiley; oh, I've just got to do something or I'll be miserable all my life!" "You're tired now," said Wiley. "It'll look different, pretty soon; and--well, I don't think I'll go in, right now." "But where will you go?" she entreated piteously. "Oh, Wiley, can't you see I'm sorry? Why can't you forgive me and let me try to make amends, instead of making both our lives so miserable?" "I don't know," answered Wiley. "It's just the way I feel. I've got nothing _against_ you; I just want to get away and forget a few things that you've done." "And then?" she asked, and he smiled enigmatically. "Well, maybe you'll forget me, too." "But Father!" she objected as he rose up suddenly and started off down the creek. "He thinks we're lovers, you know." Wiley stopped and the cold anger in his eyes gave way to a look of doubt. "Why not pretend we are?" she suggested wistfully. "Not really, but just before him. I told him we'd quarreled--and he knows I followed after you. Just to-day, Wiley; and then you can go. But if my father should think----" "Well, all right," he broke in, and as they stepped out into the open she slipped her hand into his. CHAPTER XXXII A HUFF The Colonel was sitting in the shade of a wild grapevine rapping out a series of questions at Charley, but at sight of the young people coming back hand in hand, he paused and smiled understandingly. "What now?" he said. "Is there a new earth and a new heaven? Ah, well; then Virginia's trip was worth while. But Charley here is so full of signs and wonders that my brain is fairly in a whirl. The Germans, it seems, have made a forty-two centimeter gun that is blasting down cities in France; and the Allies, to beat them, are constructing still larger ones made out of tungsten that is mined from the Paymaster. Yes, yes, Charley, that's all right, I don't doubt your word, but we'll call on Wiley for the details." He laughed indulgently and poured Charley out a drink which made his eyes blink and snap and then he waved him graciously away. "Take your burros up the canyon," he suggested briefly, and when Charley was gone he smiled. "Now," he said, as Virginia sat down beside him, "what's all this about the Paymaster and Keno?" "Well," began Virginia as Wiley sat silent, "there really was tungsten in the mine. Wiley discovered it first--he was just going through the town when he saw that specimen in my collection--and since then,--oh, everything has happened!" "By the dog!" exclaimed the Colonel starting quickly to his feet. "Do you mean that Crazy Charley spoke the truth? Is the mine really open and the town full of people and----"