“How much you got?” he asked, and when she told him he snorted. “Twenty-five thousand, eh?” he said. “How’d he pay you–with a check? Well, he might not have had a cent. A man that will rob a girl will rob his depositors–you’d better draw out a few hundred.”
She rose up in alarm, but something in his smile made her sit down and eye him accusingly.
“I know what you’re doing,” she said at last; “you’re trying to break his bank. You always said you would.”
“Oh, that stuff!” he jeered, “that was nothing but 257hot air. I’m a blow-hard–everybody knows that.”
She looked at him again, and her face became very grave, for she knew what was gnawing at his heart. And she was far from being convinced.
“You didn’t thank me,” she said, “for returning your grubstake. Does that mean you really don’t care? Or are you just mad because I took away your mine? Of course I know you are.”
“Sure, I’m mad,” he admitted. “Wouldn’t you be mad? Well, why should I thank you for this? You take away my mine, that was worth millions of dollars, and gimme back a piece of paper.”
He slapped the contract against his leg and thrust it roughly into his shirt, at which Wilhelmina burst into tears.
“I–I’m sorry I stole it,” she confessed between sobs, “and now Father and everybody is against me. But I did it for you–so you wouldn’t get killed–and so Father could have his road. And now he won’t take it, because the money isn’t ours. He says I’m to return it to you.”
“Well, you tell your old man,” burst out Wunpost brutally, “that he’s crazy and I won’t touch a cent. I guess I know how to get my rights without any help from him.”