"I see you have not forgotten your jug." "No, I got it filled in town." The man's reply was casual, as he would have mentioned his gloves, or his hat. "You said you had never run up against anything you couldn't whip, except--except----" "Yes, except my love for you. That's right--an' I never expect to." "How about that jug? Can you whip that?" "Why, yes, I could. If there was any need. I never tried it." "Suppose you try it for a while, and see." The man regarded her seriously. "You mean, if I leave off packin' that jug, you'll----" "I haven't promised anything." The girl laughed a trifle nervously. "But, I will tell you this much. I utterly despise a drunkard!" Vil Holland nodded slowly. "Let's get the straight of it," he said. "I didn't know--I didn't realize it was really hurtin' me any. Can you see that it does? Have I ever done anything that you know of, or have heard tell of, that a sober man wouldn't do?" The girl felt her anger rising. "Nobody can drink as much as you do, and not be the worse for it. Don't try to defend yourself." "No, I wouldn't do that. You see, if it's hurtin' me, there wouldn't be any defense--an' if it ain't, I don't need any." For an instant Patty regarded the man who stood framed in the doorway. "Clean-blooded," the doctor had called him, and clean-blooded he looked--the very picture of health and rugged strength, clear of eye and firm of jaw, not one slightest hint or mark of the toper could she detect, and the realization that this was so, angered her the more. Abruptly, she changed the subject, and the moment the brown leather jug was banished from her mind, her anger subsided. In the doorway, Vil Holland noted the undercurrent of suppressed excitement in her voice as she said: "I have the most wonderful news! I--_I found daddy's mine!_" Seconds passed as the man stood waiting for her to proceed. "I found it to-day," she continued, without noting that his lean brown hand gripped the hat brim even more tightly than before, nor that his lips were pressed into a thin straight line. "And my stakes are all in, and in the morning I'm going to file." Vil Holland interrupted. "You--you say you located Rod Sinclair's strike? You really located it?" Somehow, his voice sounded different.