Carfax was still smiling affably. “Is it Virgil who puts it into the mouth of one of his characters to say that we should beware of the Greeks bringing gifts, professor? You will pardon us if we seem a bit suspicious, won’t you? But this”—he held up the small cube of hardened steel which he happened to have in his pocket—“this is so completely convincing, you know.”
The mild-eyed mathematician waved the evidence aside as a thing of small moment.
“Now that you have had time to consider, I am sure you absolve me from the charge of having tampered with your drill-hole,” he deprecated.
“We do,” said Carfax. “All you did was to cover the retreat of the man who really did the tampering. But that is sufficient to make us—er—a bit cautious, as you might say.”
Hartridge smiled in his turn. “You are basing your caution upon a small specimen of the metal commercially known as steel which you chanced to find in my pocket,” he remarked. “Let us disregard the bit of steel for the time being, if you please. If you should happen to lose it, it could be very easily replaced; but”—he turned short upon Tregarvon—“you can’t replace the Ocoee if you allow Mr. Thaxter to persuade you to sell it to Consolidated Coal, Mr. Tregarvon.”
“What’s that?” exclaimed the Ocoee owner, starting from his chair; and Carfax fell back upon his strongest expletive, “By Jove!”
Hartridge appeared to be entirely at ease now. He seated himself and crossed his long legs comfortably.
“You are puzzled to account for my friendly interest?—after last night?” he inquired. “I don’t blame you, and I am only sorry that I cannot explain more fully. But I may say this: if you part with the Ocoee properties for any such sum as Mr. Thaxter has doubtless offered you, you will regret it as long as you live.”
Carfax got his breath sufficiently after a time to say: “May—may we venture to ask how you know what Mr. Thaxter has offered?”
“Certainly. The offer of one hundred thousand dollars for the lands, titles, and mineral rights of the property is no secret—or at least it was not during Mr. Tregarvon’s father’s lifetime. I am merely assuming that Thaxter has not increased it; and I am also assuming that a renewal of the offer was the reason for his early morning drive with Mr. Tregarvon.”