"You'd better learn to spell Wunpost," he said with a hectoring laugh, "before you put on any more dog with the ladies. But I asked you for that rock and I intend to git a look at it--I claim an interest in anything you've found." "Oh, you do, eh?" returned Wunpost, now suddenly calm. "Well, let me tell you something, Mr. Rhodes. You wasn't in my company when I found this chunk of rock, so you haven't got any interest--see? But rather than have an argument in the presence of these ladies I'll show you the quartz again." He drew out the piece of rock and handed it to Rhodes who stared at it with sun-blinded eyes--then suddenly he whipped out a case and focussed a pair of magnifying glasses meanwhile mumbling to himself in broken accents. "Where'd you git that rock?" he asked, looking up, and Wunpost threw out his chest. "Right there at Black Point," he answered carelessly, "you've been chasing along by it for years." "I don't believe it!" burst out Dusty gazing wildly about and mumbling still louder in the interim. "It ain't possible--I've been right by there!" "But perhaps you never stopped," suggested Wunpost sarcastically and handed the piece of rock to Mrs. Campbell. "Look in them holes," he directed, "they're full of fine gold." And then he turned to Dusty. "No, Mr. Rhodes," he said, "you ain't treated me right or I'd let you in on this strike. But you went off and left me and therefore you're out of it, and there ain't any extensions to stake. It's just a single big blow-out, an eroded volcanic cone, and I've covered it all with one claim." "But you was _traveling_ with me!" yelled Rhodes dancing about like a jay-bird, "you gimme half or I'll have the law on ye!" "Hop to it!" invited Wunpost, "nothing would please me better than to air this whole case in court. And I'll bet, when I've finished, they'll take you out of court and hang you to the first tree they find. I'll just tell them the facts, how you went off and left me and refused to either stop or leave me water; and then I'll tell the judge how this little girl came down and saved my life with her mule. I'm not trying to play the hog--all I want is half the claim--but the other half goes to Billy. Here's the paper, Wilhelmina; I may not know how to spell but you bet your life I know who's my friend!"