“You’ve never seen him?”
“No. But I believe he set the grass afire the other day, and made us a heap of trouble along Larruper Crick,” declared the ranchman.
The lawyer looked thoughtful. “There was a young fellow here twice to look up the Tintacker properties. He came to see me the first time—that was more than a year ago. Said he had been left his father’s share in the old Tintacker Mine and wanted to buy out the heirs of the other partner. I helped him get a statement of the record and the names of the other parties——”
“Oh, please, Mr. Savage, what was his name?” asked Ruth, quickly.
“I don’t know what his name really was,” replied the lawyer, smiling. “He called himself John Cox—might have been just a name he took for the time being. There wasn’t any Cox ever had an interest in the Tintacker as far as I can find. But he probably had his own reasons for keeping his name to himself. Then he came back in the winter. I saw him on the street here. That’s all I know about him.”
“Tenderfoot?” asked Hicks.
“Yes, and a nice spoken fellow. He made a personal inspection of the properties the first time he was here. That I know, for I found a guide for him, Ben Burgess. He stayed two weeks at the old camp, Ben said, and acted like he knew something about minerals.”
Mr. Savage had found the proper books and he discovered almost at once that there had been an entry made since he had last looked up the records of Tintacker a year or more before.
“That fellow did it!” exclaimed the lawyer. “He must have found those other heirs and he’s got possession of the entire Tintacker Mine holdings. Yes-sir! the records are as straight as a string. And the record was made last winter. That is what he came back here for. Now, young lady, what do you want to know about it all?”
“I want a copy, please, of the record just as it stands—the present ownership of the mine, I mean,” said Ruth. “I want to send that to Uncle Jabez.”