“Say, this is almost as good as a silver mine!” exclaimed Mr. Hayward. “This stuff is in great demand! It’s used by chemists, and they can’t get enough of it.”
“Lucky for the man who owns this land,” commented Mr. Harkness. “But I don’t see that it concerns us. Guess I’d better be going.”
“Why, man, this is my land!” suddenly exclaimed Mr. Hayward. “I own a big tract in here, but I believed it was worthless, and I was about to sell it very cheap. Now—well, say, you couldn’t buy it! My fortune is made again!”
“Boys,” he went on, a little more soberly, “you don’t know it, but I’ve been in quite a hole lately. The house where I live was about to be sold for a mortgage. But my daughter never knew. She—”
“Yes, she did,” interrupted Fenn. “She knew all about it, and she was trying to help you!”
“She did? You don’t mean it!”
Then Fenn explained; telling of Ruth’s strange remarks while in a delirium at his house, her unexpected discovery of the cave, the man’s threat, her long silence under fear of it, and her desire to aid her father to recover his wealth.
“Well, this gets me!” exclaimed Mr. Hayward. “Ruth is a girl that’s hard to beat.”
They went to the foot of the shaft, where Fenn had come down, but there were no men to be seen.
“Let them go,” suggested Mr. Hayward. “I’ve got all I want, and I must hurry and tell my daughter the news, bless her heart!”