"Yes, it was sort of funny. I was covered up from one in the afternoon until five, quite conscious all the time and pretty well scared. You see, I couldn't help wondering just what would happen if the rocks should settle. My eyes got the worst of it and I had to stay in the hospital about a month. But I'm afraid I'm boring you. I was just leading up to my meeting with Ed." "Boring me! Don't be absurd! Then what happened?" "Well, after I got out of the hospital I bought a burro and a tent and hiked out for the Sangre--for the southern part of the State. I still had some money coming to me for work when the trouble happened, and after I got out I cashed an accident policy I'd luckily taken out a month before. I stayed in the mountains pretty much all summer prospecting. I found the biggest bunch of rock I'd ever seen, but no yellow iron--I mean gold. Came sort of near starving before I got out. I sold my outfit and went back to Cripple and struck another job with the shovel and pick, digging prospect ditches. It was pretty tiresome work and pretty cold, too. So when I'd got a month's wages I told the boss he'd either have to put me underground or I'd quit. I said I was a miner and not a Dago. You see, I felt independently rich with a month's wages in my jeans--pockets, that is. The boss said I could quit. I've been wondering ever since," laughed Wade, "whether I quit or was fired." "That was lovely," said Eve. "Oh, dear, I've often wished I'd been a man!" "H'm; well, every one to his taste. But look here, Miss Walton, you're certain I'm not boring you to death?" "Quite. What did you do with all that money? And how much did a month's wages amount to?"