“I am so glad to be able to ask you something about my mine,” she said. “Ida tells me that you have reopened it.”
“Yes, they are already through the fault and driving for the vein. There happened to be a good man here looking for a job when I got Mark’s telegram, a young engineer from the East, named Raymond. The miners are good capable men, too, and as Osborne and Douglas installed a compressor, the work should be pretty quick. I fancy you’ll recover the vein in a week or two.”
“I wonder if I shall? Mark thinks you infallible, but it seems too good to be true.”
“The vein is there, about a hundred feet down, but how rich it is I do not venture to predict.”
“Well, never mind,” Ora smiled happily. “I shall have the fun of looking for it, and I want to be with the men when they find it.”
“Oh—Ah—It really would be better for you to give up that idea of going out there to stay——”
“I thought I would give to you the opportunity to say that at once! Do go on and relieve your mind.”
“It is neither safe nor desirable,” he said sulkily. “I may have a row on my hands any minute. Your men and my men are a decent lot, but the Apex have employed a lot of scum so ignorant that there is no knowing what they may do in a crisis—in the hope of currying favour with their superiors. They would merely be made scapegoats or—canned—I beg pardon, fired—but they don’t know that, and they’re as hard a lot as Europe ever kicked on to our dump heap. Better stay here for the present.”
“I’ve sent out all the furniture for the bungalow, and Custer and a Chinaman to put it in order. I suppose my engineer can camp in the other cottage until it is finished. That is quite close to mine, I understand.”
“Oh, of course—but why not stay at my ranch house——”