"Glad to meet her," replied Calhoun still shaking his hand, "you're a good kid, Billy; I like you. And when your mother comes, if it's agreeable to her, I'd like to take you along for my pardner. How would that suit you, now--I've just made a big strike and I'll put you right next to the discovery." "I--I'd like it," stammered the boy hastily drawing his hand away, "only--only I'm afraid my mother won't let me. You see the boys are all gone, and there's lots of work to do, and--but I do get awful lonely." "I'll fix it!" announced Calhoun, pausing to take another drink, "and anything I've got, it's yours. You've saved my life, Billy, and I never forget a kindness--any more than I forget an injury. Do you see that rock?" he demanded fiercely. "I'm going to follow Dusty Rhodes to the end of the world and bash out his rabbit brains with it! I stopped up at Black Point to look at that big dyke and what do you think he done? He went off and _left_ me and never looked back until he struck them Blackwater saloons! And the first chunk of rock that I knocked off of that ledge would assay a thousand dollars--gold! I ran after that danged fool until I fell down like I was dead, and then I ran after him again, but he never so much as looked back--and all the time I was trying to make him rich and put him next to my strike!" He stopped and mopped his brow, then took another drink and laughed, deep down in his chest. "We were supposed to be prospecting," he said at last. "I threw in with him over at Furnace Creek and we never stopped hiking until we struck the upper water at Wild Rose. How's that for prospecting--never looked at a rock, except them he threw at his burros--and this morning, when I stopped, he got all bowed up and went off and left me flat. All I had was one canteen and the makings for a smoke, everything else was on the jacks, and the first rock I knocked off was rotten with gold--he'd been going past it for years! Well, I _stopped_! Nothing to it, when you find a ledge like that you want to put up a notice. All my blanks were in the pack but I located it, all the same--with some rocks and a cigarette paper. It'll hold, all right, according to law--it's got my name, and the date, and the name of the claim and how far I claim, both ways--but not a doggoned corner nor a pick-mark on it; and there it is, right by the trail! The first jasper that comes by is going to jump it, sure--don't you know, boy, I've got to get _back_. What's the chances for borrowing your mule?" "What--Tellurium?" faltered the boy going over to the mule and rubbing his nose regretfully, "he's--he's a pet; I'd rather not." "Aw come on now, I'll pay you well--I'll stake you the claim next to mine. That ought to be worth lots of money." "Nope," returned Billy, "here's a lunch I brought along. I guess I'll be going home." He untied a sack of food from the back of his saddle and mounted as if to go, but the stranger took the mule by the bit.