“Thanks for your thoughtfulness, Mary,” Andy laughed. “I don’t wonder that Charmian finds you indispensable. But did you call the Shinbone Country the Bonehead Country by accident, or—”
“Or,” Mary interjected decisively.
There was but one direction for the trio to travel, they found, because they were in a pass between the two lines of buttes. It was not long before they saw evidences of bygone mining activities—several dumps of rather large proportions, and above them tunnels in the side of a hill. They left their horses on the level land and clambered up among the rocks, to find that, in some past day, a great deal of work had been done.
They investigated for an hour or more, and then a voice hailed them from a distance, and they saw the gigantic figure of Shirttail Henry approaching along the floor of the pass. He came straight toward them, negotiated the hillside with ease, and made his profound bows all around when he reached them.
“No rain a-tall,” he announced morosely. “That cloud was gone before I got there. I’m glad ye left Leach an’ Morley behind. I wanted to talk to ye alone about these here claims here.”
A few words sufficed to apprise him of the unexpected decampment of the designing opal miners, and the recital brought forth Shirttail Henry’s cackling “Heh-heh-heh.”
“I ain’t a-tall s’prised, ma’am,” he told Charmian. “They’re ornery, them two boys. This ain’t th’ first time they tried to sell these ole abandoned opal mines to some one.”
“Abandoned mines?” puzzled Charmian.
“Course,” said Henry. “That’s what they are. Twenty year ago they was a lot o’ fine stones took outa here. There’s lots o’ opal here yet, but it ain’t got any fire. Ye see, ma’am, it takes time for an opal to gather its fire. The fellas that staked out these claims got rich. I know they sold one stone they found for ten thousand dollars—one of the biggest prices ever paid for an opal. But the good stones run out, so they abandoned the claims. Then Leach an’ Morley filed on ’em just to have somethin’ to sell to some sucker. In time the opals here will gather their fire, but you folks wouldn’t be here to mine ’em.”
“How long does it take an opal to get its fire?” asked Charmian.