CHAPTER II
THE GATEWAY OF DREAMS
Standing alone in the desert, with her face bared to the moonlight andher curls shaken free to the wind, Wilhelmina smiled softly as she gazedafter the stranger who already had won her heart. His language had beencrude when he thought she was a boy, but that only proved the perfectionof her disguise; and when she had asked if it made any difference, andconfessed that she was a girl, he had bridged over the gap like a flash."Hell--no!" he had said, as men oftentimes do to express the heartiestaccord; and then he had added, with the gallantry due a lady, thatWilhelmina was a right pretty name. And tomorrow, as soon as he hadstaked out his claim--their claim--he was coming back to the ranch!
She started back up the long wash that led down from Jail Canyon, stillmusing on his masterful ways, but as she rounded the lower point and sawa light in the house a sudden doubt assailed her. Tellurium was hermule, to give to whom she chose, but he was matched to pull with Bodiewhen they needed a team and her father might not approve. And what wouldshe say when she met her mother's eye and she questioned her about thisstrange man? Yet she knew as well as anything that he was going to makeher rich--and tomorrow he would bring back the mule. All she needed wasfaith, and the patience to wait; and she took her scolding so meeklythat her mother repented it and allowed her to sleep in the tunnel.
The Jail Canyon Ranch lay in a pocket among the hills, so shut in byhigh ridges and overhanging rimrock that it seemed like the bottom of awell; but where the point swung in that encircled the tiny farm a tunnelbored its way through the hill. It was the extension of a mine which inearlier days had gophered along the hillside after gold, but now that itwas closed down and abandoned to the rats Wilhelmina had taken thetunnel for her own. It ran through the knife-blade ridge as straight asa die, and a trail led up to its mouth; and from the other side, whereit broke out into the sun, there was a view of the outer world. Sittingwithin its cool portal she could look off across the Sink, to Blackwaterand the Argus Range beyond; and by stepping outside she could see thewhole valley, from South Pass to the Death Valley Trail.
It was from this tunnel that she had watched when Dusty Rhodes wentpast, a moving fleck of color plumed with dust; and when the sun sanklow she had seen the form that followed, like a man yet not like a man.She had seen it rise and fall, disappear and loom up again; until atlast in the twilight she had challenged it with a fire and the answerhad led her to--him. She had found him--lost on the desert and about todie, big and strong yet dependent upon her aid--and when she had allowedher long curls to escape he had stood silent in the presence of herwomanhood. She wanted to run back and sleep in her tunnel, where the airwas always moving and cool; and then in the morning, when she looked tothe north, she might see the first dust of his return. She might see histall form, and the white sides of Tellurium as he took the shortest wayhome, and then she could run back and drag her mother to the portal andprove that her knight had been misjudged. For her mother had predictedthat the prospector would not return, and that his mine was only ablind; but she, who had seen him and felt the clasp of his hand, sheknew that he would never rob _her_. So she fled to her dream-house,where there was nothing to check her fancies, and slept in thetunnel-mouth till dawn.
The day came first in the west, galloping along the Argus Range andsplashing its peaks with red; and then as the sun ascended it found gapsin the eastern rim and laid long bands of light across the Sink. It roseup higher and, as the desert stood forth bare, the dweller in thedream-house stepped out through its portals and gazed long at the DeathValley Trail. From the far north pass, where it came down from WildRose, to where Blackwater sent up its thin smoke, the trail crept like aserpent among the sandhills and washes, a long tenuous line through theSink. Where the ground was white the trail stood out darker, and whereit crossed the sun-burnt mesas it was white; but from one end to theother it was vacant and nothing emerged from north pass. Billy sighedand turned away, but when she came back there was a streak of dust tothe south.
It came tearing along the trail from Blackwater, struck up by agalloping horseman, and at the spot where she had found the lost man thenight before the flying rider stopped. He rode about in circles, startednorth and came dashing back; and at last, still galloping, he turned upthe wash and headed for the mouth of Jail Canyon. He was some searcherwho had found her tracks in the sand, and the tracks of Tellurium goingon; and, rather than follow the long trail to Wild Rose Springs, he wascoming to interview her. Billy ran down to meet him with long, rangeystrides, and at the point of the hill she stood waiting expectantly, forvisitors were rare at the ranch. Three restless lonely weeks had draggedaway without bringing a single wanderer to their doors; and now here wasa second man, fully as exciting as the first, because he was coming upthere to see _her_. Billy tucked up her curls beneath the brim ofher man's hat as she watched the laboring horse, but when she made outwho it was that was coming she gave up all thought of disguise.
"Hello, Dusty!" she called running gayly down to meet him, "are youlooking for Mr. Calhoun?"
"Oh, it's Mister, is it?" he yelled. "Well, have you seen the dangedwhelp? Whoo, boy--where is he, Billy?"
"He went back!" she cried, "I lent him my mule. He told me he'd made arich strike!"
"A rich _strike_!" repeated the man and then he laughed and spurredhis drooping mount. He was tall and bony with a thin, hawk nose and eyessunk deep into his head. "A rich strike, eh?" he mimicked, and then helaughed again, until suddenly his face came straight. "What's that yousaid?" he shouted, "you didn't lend him your _mule_! Well, I'mafraid, my little girl, you've made a mistake--that feller is a regularhorse-thief. Is your mother up to the house? We'll go up and seeher--I'm afraid he's gone and stole your mule!"
"Oh, no he hasn't," protested Billy confidently, running along the trailbeside him, "he went back to stake out his claim. He found some rich oreright there at Black Point, and he's going to give me half of it."
"At Black P'int!" whooped Dusty Rhodes doubling up in a knot to squeezeout the last atom of his mirth, "w'y I've been past that p'int fortwenty years--it's nothing but porphyry and burnt lava! He's crazy withthe heat! Where's your father, my little girl? We'll have to go out andketch him if we ever expect to git back that mule!"
"He's working up the canyon," answered Billy sulkily, "but never youmind about my mule. He's mine, I guess, and I loaned him to that man inexchange for a half interest in his mine!"
"Oh, it's a _mine_ now, is it?" mocked Dusty Rhodes, "next thingit'll be a mine and mill. And he borrowed your mule, eh, that yourfather give ye, and sent ye back home on foot!"
"I don't care!" pouted Billy, "I'll bet you change your tune when yousee him coming back with my mule. You went off and left him, and if Ihadn't gone down and helped him he would have died in the desert ofthirst."
"Eh--eh! Went off and _left_ him!" bleated Dusty in a fury, "thepoor fool went off and left _me_! I picked him up at Furnace Crick,over in the middle of Death Valley, and jest took him along out of pity;and all the way over he was looking at every rock when a prospectorwouldn't spit on the place! He was eating my grub and packing his bed onmy jacks; and then, by the gods, he wants me to stop at Black P'intwhile he looks at that hungry bull-quartz! I warned him distinctly thatI don't wait for no man--did he say I went off and left him?"
"Yes, he did," answered Billy, "and he says he's going to kill you,because you went off and took all his water!"
"Hoo, hoo!" jeered Dusty Rhodes, "that big bag of wind?" But he ignoredwhat she said about the water.
They spattered through the creek, where it flowed out to sink in thesand, and passed around the point of the canyon; and then the greenvalley spread out before them until it was cut off by the gorge above.This was the treacherous Corkscrew Bend, where the fury of countlesscloudbursts had polished the granite walls like a tombstone; but DustyRhodes recalled the time when a fine stage-road had threaded its curvesand led on up the canyon to old Panamint. But the flood which haddestroyed the road had
left the town marooned and the inhabitants hadgone out over the rocks; until now only Cole Campbell, the owner of theHomestake, stayed on to do the work on his claims. In this valley farbelow he had made his home for years, diverting the creek to water hisscanty crops; while in season and out he labored on the road which wasto connect up his mine with the world.
His house stood against the hill, around the point from Corkscrew Bend,old and rambling and overgrown with vines; and along the road that ledup to it there were rows of peaches and figs, fenced off by stone wallsfrom the creek. Dusty rode past the trees slowly, feasting his eyes ontheir lush greenness and the rank growth of alfalfa beyond; until fromthe house ahead a screen door slammed and a woman gazed anxiously down.
"Oh, is that you, Mr. Rhodes?" she called out at last, "I thought it wasthe man who got lost! Come up to the house and tell me about him--do youthink he will bring back our mule?"
He dismounted with a flourish and dropped his reins at the gate; then,while Billy hung back and petted the lathered horse, he strode up theflower-entangled walk.
"Don't think nothing, Mrs. Campbell," he announced with decision, "thatboy has stole 'em before. He'll trade off that mule fer anything he cangit and pull his freight fer Nevada."
He paced up to the porch and shook hands ceremoniously, after which heaccepted a drink and a basketful of figs and proceeded to retail thenews.
"Do you know who that feller is?" he inquired mysteriously, as Billycrept resentfully near, "he's the man that discovered the Wunpost mineand tried to keep it dark. Yes, that big mine over in Keno that theythought was worth millions, only it pinched right out at depth; but itshowed up the nicest specimens of jewelry gold that has ever been seenin these parts. Well, this Wunpost, as they call him, was working on agrubstake for a banker named Judson Eells. He'd been out for two years,just sitting around the water-holes or playing coon-can with the Injuns,when he comes across this mine, or was led to it by some Injun, and hetries to cover it up. He puts up one post, to kinder hold it down incase some prospector should happen along; and then he writes his notice,_leaving out the date_--and everything else, you might say.
"'Wunpost Mine,'" he writes, "'John C. Calhoun owner. I claim fifteenhundred feet on this vein.'
"And jest to show you, Mrs. Campbell, what an ignorant fool he is--hespelled One Post, W-u-n! That's where he got his name!"
"I think that's a _pretty_ name!" spoke up Billy loyally, as hermother joined in on the laugh. "And anyhow, just because a man can'tspell, that's no reason for calling him a fool!"
"Well, he _is_ a fool!" burst out Dusty Rhodes spitefully, "andmore than that, he's a crook! Now that is what he done--he covered upthat find and went back to the man that had grubstaked him. But thisbanker was no sucker, if he did have the name of staking every bum inNevada. 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 acorporation lawyer couldn't break. Well, when Wunpost said he'd quit,Mr. Eells says all right--no hard feeling--better luck next time. Butwhen Wunpost went back and opened up this vein Mr. Eells wasJohnny-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 aclause giving him the right to take possession and to work the mineaccording to his judgment. And the first thing Wunpost knowed the minewas 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 twoyears!"
"But didn't he receive _anything_?" inquired Mrs. Campbell. "Thatseems to me pretty sharp practice."
She was a prim little woman, with honest blue eyes that sometimes mademen think of their sins, and when Dusty Rhodes perceived that he hadgone a bit too far he endeavored to justify his spleen.
"He received _some_!" he cried, "but what good did it do him? Eellsgive him five hundred dollars when he demanded an accounting and heblowed it all in in one night. He was buying the drinks for every man incamp--your money was all counterfeit with him--and the next morning hewoke 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 witha big banker like Eells? No, he walked out of camp without a cent to hisname and I picked him up Tuesday over at Furnace Crick. All he had washis bed and a couple of canteens and a little jerked beef in a sack, butto hear the poor boob talk you'd think he was a millionaire--he had theworld by the tail. And then, at the end of it, he'd be borrying yourtobacco--or anything else you'd got. But I never would've thought thathe'd steal Billy's mule--that's gitting pretty low, it strikes me."
"He never stole my mule!" burst out Wilhelmina angrily. "I expect himback 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'sgetting to be growed-up, ain't she? Last time I come through here shewas a little girl in pigtails but now it's done up in curls. And I can'tsay a word against this no-account Wunpost till she calls me a liar tomy face!"
"Billy is almost nineteen," answered Mrs. Campbell quietly, "but I'msurprised to hear her contradict."
"Well, I didn't mean that," apologized Wilhelmina hastily, "but--wellanyhow, I _know_ he's got a mine! Because he showed me a piece ofquartz that he'd carried all the way, and he must have had a reason for_that_. It was just moonlight, of course, and I couldn't see thegold, but I know that it was quartz."
"Ah, Billy, my little girl," returned Dusty indulgently, "you don't knowthe boy like I do. And the world is full of quartz but you don't find amine right next to a well-worn trail. Have you got that piece of rock?Well now you see the p'int--he took it _away_! Would he do that ifhis mine was on the square?"
"Well, I don't know why not," answered Billy at last and then she bowedher head and turned away. They gazed after her pityingly as she ranalong the ditch and up to the mouth of her tunnel, but Billy did notstop till she had threaded its murky passageway and come out at her gateof dreams. It was from there that she had seen him when he was lost inthe Sink, and she knew her dream of dreams would come true. He was goingto come back, he was going to bring her mule, and make her his partnerin the mine. She looked out--and there was his dust!