"Well, he _is_ a fool!" burst out Dusty Rhodes spitefully, "and more than that, he's a crook! Now that is what he done--he covered up that find and went back to the man that had grubstaked him. But this banker was no sucker, if he did have the name of staking every bum in Nevada. He was generous with his men and he give 'em all they asked for, but before he planked down a dollar he made 'em sign a contract that a corporation lawyer couldn't break. Well, when Wunpost said he'd quit, Mr. Eells says all right--no hard feeling--better luck next time. But when Wunpost went back and opened up this vein Mr. Eells was Johnny-on-the-spot. He steps up to that hole and shows his contract, giving him an equal share of whatever Wunpost finds--and then he reads a clause giving him the right to take possession and to work the mine according to his judgment. And the first thing Wunpost knowed the mine was worked out and he was left holding the sack. But served him right, sez I, for trying to beat his outfitter, after eating his grub for two years!" "But didn't he receive _anything_?" inquired Mrs. Campbell. "That seems to me pretty sharp practice." She was a prim little woman, with honest blue eyes that sometimes made men think of their sins, and when Dusty Rhodes perceived that he had gone a bit too far he endeavored to justify his spleen. "He received _some_!" he cried, "but what good did it do him? Eells give him five hundred dollars when he demanded an accounting and he blowed it all in in one night. He was buying the drinks for every man in camp--your money was all counterfeit with him--and the next morning he woke up without a shirt to his back, having had it torn off in a fight. What kind of a man is that to be managing a mine or to be partners with a big banker like Eells? No, he walked out of camp without a cent to his name and I picked him up Tuesday over at Furnace Crick. All he had was his bed and a couple of canteens and a little jerked beef in a sack, but to hear the poor boob talk you'd think he was a millionaire--he had the world by the tail. And then, at the end of it, he'd be borrying your tobacco--or anything else you'd got. But I never would've thought that he'd steal Billy's mule--that's gitting pretty low, it strikes me." "He never stole my mule!" burst out Wilhelmina angrily. "I expect him back here any time. And when he does come, and you hear about his mine, I'll bet you change your tune!" "Ho! Ho!" shouted Rhodes, nodding and winking at Mrs. Campbell, "she's getting to be growed-up, ain't she? Last time I come through here she was a little girl in pigtails but now it's done up in curls. And I can't say a word against this no-account Wunpost till she calls me a liar to my face!" "Billy is almost nineteen," answered Mrs. Campbell quietly, "but I'm surprised to hear her contradict."