“What? After old Honest John robbed Papa 5of the Paymaster, and then hounded him to his death on the desert?”
“He did nothing of the kind–he never robbed anybody! And as for hounding your father to his death, the Old Man never even knew about it. He was down on the ranch, and when they told him the news─”
“Yes, that’s you,” she railed, stifling back her sobs, “you can always prove an alibi. But you’d better drift, Mr. Holman; because if mother knows you’re here─”
“Well, what?” he demanded, truculently.
“She’ll fill you full of buckshot.”
“Pah!” he scoffed and snapped his fingers in the air, after which he lapsed into silence.
“Well, she will,” she asserted, after waiting for him to speak, but Wiley only grunted.
“Wait till I get that dinner,” he said at last and slumped down into a chair. He muttered to himself, gazing dubiously towards the kitchen, and turned impatiently to look at some specimens in a case against the wall. They were the usual chunks of high-grade gold ore, but he examined one piece with great care.
“Where’d you get this?” he asked, holding up a piece of white rock, and she sighed and brushed away her tears.
“Over on the dump,” she answered wearily. “That’s all Paymaster ore. Don’t you think you’d better go?”