“About the mine. I have corresponded with the Williams Manufacturing Company of New Jersey, who are large manufacturers of chemical products. They will buy this location outright, should it prove up to the samples we sent. They are of the very highest standing and reputation; I have dealt with them for years. One of their men is due here any day; in fact, he is overdue. His name is James Z. Premble. He will be empowered to make full negotiations with us. Until he arrives, let us not worry about Mackintavers.”
“Mebbe that’s how come Sandy learned about your stake in the game; he knew you’d been correspondin’ with somebody,” and Mrs. Crump frowned. “My land! He’s in with a heap o’ them mining sharps, Coravel. They know all about each other.”
Coravel Tio smiled gently. “Very likely, señora. However, this firm is entirely above suspicion. Now, we must find your friend Shea at once; that is imperative. The property is recorded in his name, you remember.”
“Sandy knows that, too,” said Mrs. Crump, her eyes troubled. “He knows too damned much, if you ask me!”
“Fear not, señora. He has been meddling with forbidden things, things which bring their own punishment. He has been meddling with things that I would not meddle with! By the way, I met a very interesting man the other day; one Thomas Twofork, an Indian from the Cochiti pueblo, recently returned from an Eastern college. You would enjoy meeting him. A very fine young man.”
Mrs. Crump grunted. “I’d admire to know just what’s laying back in your mind, Coravel Tio! Now, why the devil would I want to know any Injun buck like him? What’s he to me?”
Coravel Tio laughed softly and puffed at his cigarette.
“Ah! I cannot say, señora. I am a curio dealer, no more. I know nothing at all about such things as these. But I know that Thomas Twofork is a very interesting man.”
With the following morning Mrs. Crump took Mackintavers over the ground and the adjacent claims. Coravel Tio complained of the heat, and did not accompany them. Instead, he stood out in the sun, heedless of the heat, and watched Lewis and Gilbert at work. He talked with them at some length, and they seemed much interested in his discourse. By this time they knew a little more about Coravel Tio than they had known at their first meeting with him.
“What do you figger is goin’ to happen, then?” demanded Lewis, when he had finished.