Hopeful Bill Dale he was called in the mining camps, where he made calls for supplies, and they jibed at his unquenchable optimism. Bill loved the desert; he delighted to pry and pick into some mineral outcropping in a far canyon where no prospector had been before and he was perfectly sure in his own mind that some day he would strike it lucky. And he did; he uncovered a gold vein that undoubtedly meant millions, which so elated him that he crowed over his good fortune to Luella, his parrot pet, who had an uncanny way of repeating any phrase that appealed to her fancy. So it happened that when Bill left her outside the recorder’s office while he went in to file his claims, Luella chattered to the bystanders and “tipped Bill’s hand.” Unscrupulous ones heard, were quick to see the significance of Luella’s remarks, and quicker still to start their own schemes to benefit by Bill’s discovery.
Thus started the boom on the Parowan Bonanza and thus started Bill Dale’s troubles – for it was the gold that won him Doris Hunter. How Bill tackled his problems, how the Parowan boom worked out, how Doris developed, are all related in typical B.M. Bower style, with dramatic vividness, with accurate knowledge of types and their settings, and with refreshing, wholesome humor.
This is unquestionably the best book B.M. Bower has written since “Cow-Country.”
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