“No; but he could not come himself, and so I came for him. He said the mine was somewhere out here, and I promised to look it up.”
Colonel Mendix looked at Oliver sharply for a moment.
“Who ran this mine?” he asked slowly.
“Colonel Mendix.”
At the mention of that name the Spaniard could not help but flinch. But he quickly recovered.
“Ah, yes, I knew Colonel Mendix,” he replied. “He went to South America several years ago.”
“He did?”
“Yes. If you are after the mine he opened I can tell you all about it. But it is of small consequence, I can assure you.”
“Why?”