“I’ll make that red-haired girl think that Ike knows a few things, after all, if he is less bold than the other boys,” thought Ruth. “He’s been real kind to me and maybe I can help him with Sally. If she knew beans she’d know that Ike was true blue!”
Mr. Hicks came along the street and found her soon after Ruth’s errand was done and took her to the office of the young lawyer he had mentioned. This was Mr. Savage—a brisk, businesslike man, who seemed to know at once just what the girl wished to discover.
“You come right over with me to the county records office and we’ll look up the history of those Tintacker Mines,” he said. “Mr. Hicks knows a good deal about mining properties, and he can check my work as we go along.”
So the three repaired to the county offices and the lawyer turned up the first records of the claims around Tintacker.
“There is only one mine called Tintacker,” he explained. “The adjacent mines are Tintacker claims. The camp that sprang up there and flourished fifteen years ago, was called Tintacker, too. But for more than ten years the kiotes have held the fort over there for the most part—eh, Mr. Hicks?”
“And that crazy feller that’s been around yere for some months,” the ranchman said.
“What crazy fellow is that?” demanded Lawyer Savage, quickly.
“Why, thar’s been a galoot around Tintacker ever since Spring opened. I dunno but he was thar in the winter——”
“Young man, or old?” interrupted Savage.
“Not much more’n a kid, my boys say.”