“Forty thousand!Say, she’s worth forty million! For cripes’ sake–have you signed the papers?”
“No, I haven’t, but─”
“Well, then, don’t! Don’t you do it–don’t you dare to sign anything, not even a receipt for your money! Oh, my Lord, I just got here in time!”
“But I’m going to,” ended Wilhelmina, and then for the first time he noticed the look in her eye. It was as cold and steely as a gun-fighter’s.
“Why–what’s the matter?” he clamored. “You ain’t sore at me, are you? But even if you are, don’t sign any papers until I tell you about that mine. How much ore have you got in sight?”
“Why, just that one vein, where it goes under the black rock─”
“They’s two others!” he panted, “that I covered up on purpose. Oh, my Lord, this is simply awful.”
“Two others!” echoed Wilhelmina, and then she 244sat dumb while a scared look crept into her eyes. “Well, I didn’t know that,” she went on at last, “and of course we lost everything, that other time. So when Mr. Eells offered me forty thousand cash and agreed to release you from that grubstake contract─”
“You throwed the whole thing away, eh?”
He had turned sullen now and petulantly discontented and the fire flashed back into her eyes.