The voices dropped beyond the hearing of Bowen. But he had heard enough. The irony of the situation was that Henderson did not in the least realize that his clever scheme was utterly ruining the man he hated, Bob Bowen, of Tonopah!
“And he sha’n’t know it if I can help it,” grimly reflected Bowen.
He fought down the panic that gripped him. He felt no satisfaction at having correctly guessed Dickover’s plan of campaign. He felt no delight at having correctly guessed that a chemical process had been perfected. All this was lost in the thought that he had ruined Alice Ferguson. For himself he did not greatly care. He had been broke before, and would be broke again!
But the thought of the girl who had believed in him, hurt and rankled. It must now be getting on toward noon, he concluded. By this time Gus Saunders, through scattered agents, was buying Apex Crown here and in Los Angeles; buying it for Bowen and Ferguson! Dickover was grimly hammering down the stock. Saunders’s buying would be too carefully handled to send it shooting up in a hurry. And when Saunders got all through, according to the orders the partners had given him, they would own a mine that was absolutely worthless!
“As soon as we’ve got in the clear”—Henderson’s chuckling tone came through the muffling curtain with new clearness—“we’ll spring the news about the mine having petered out completely. Then maybe she won’t smash! I tell you what, Cheadle! This manipulation is going to be investigated, all right; you run out and bring up some lunch, will you? While you’re gone, locate somebody you can trust, and have him spread the news that Apex Crown has petered out. Have it done at exactly two o’clock.
“Dickover will get the wires hot in five minutes, and you can arrange for him to discover the truth at Tonopah. Wire somebody there that the mine’s busted and you are in Frisco.”
“What’s the matter with your own men doing all this?” growled Cheadle suspiciously.
“I’m doing the operating; I’ll be the first man under investigation. Can’t afford to take the risk, even to put a hole in Dickover’s bank-account, blast him! But you can do it. Put on those glasses and that line of talk you can assume, and you’ll get by. Don’t you know any one you can trust?”
There was a moment of silence, then a chair was scraped back.
“I know a guy,” returned Cheadle. “I guess it can be done safe enough. Two o’clock, eh?”