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 "We own a mine together, Miss Burnett, the Better Days, at Lone Mesa, Colorado. We found it at a time when we were both about as hard up as we could be and the name explains what we hoped for. And we weren't disappointed. The Better Days is one of the best little producers in the state and we haven't much more than scratched the surface yet. It was hard work for a while, though. Winter shut down on us before we'd got much done and we had to worry through it without knowing for certain whether we'd really struck a good lode or merely a pocket. There were times that winter—" He stopped with a shake of his head.

"Tell me," she said interestedly. "How did you happen to find it? Did you just stumble on it the way they do in stories?"

"Not a bit of it! We prospected for almost three months before we found that claim. We'd been down in the southwest. Our grub gave out and we had to get back. We struck Telluride dead-broke and lay