"'About two dollars.'
"'I reckon you better send it back to the shop,' he says. 'You can take Nance home in my buggy.'
"It was his surrender; but I didn't turn a hair.
"'I guess you're right,' I says. 'It is a little expensive to spark in—and a little too public, too.'"
The whistle of the engine announcing the station helped him out.
"Here's Victor, and my mine is up there on the north-west side. You can just see the chimney. I've got another year on it, and I'm goin' to raise dirt to beat hell durin' all the time there is left, and then I'm goin' to Denver."
"And Nance?"
"Oh, she's comin' out next week," he said, as he rose to take down his valise. "I've bought a place at the Springs."
"Good luck to you both," said I, as he swung from the train.