“Of course I do,” he answered promptly. “She’s a jolly good girl. I admire her lots.”
His aunt smiled again. “I didn’t mean that way, David.”
He crumpled the letter in his hand and thrust it in his pocket. “Well, I did care—once.”
“Don’t you now?”
He hesitated, staring at his white fingers. “I don’t know exactly. I think not. You see Wallie and his father know enough about my plans, and I about theirs, to make it difficult for anything of that kind. Frankly, I’m fighting them for a fortune. It’s up there,” he continued, gesturing toward the north. “They want it and we’ve got it. They’re going to make trouble for us if they can. They’ll do it politely enough, of course, but—wait a minute—” He tore the third letter open and glanced at it hastily.
“I thought so. I left that box of asbestos samples in Bascomb’s office that day....”
He took Avery’s second letter from his pocket again and smoothed it on his knee.
“... so not hearin’ from you I sot still and waited. Long Come young Glass-eyes perlite as axel-greas and said the railrud were goin to cross five mile below Lost Farm. I tole him I knowed that fur a considable spell. He looked Supprised a minit and then said he was willin to stick by the fust deal and pay me my figer fur the land I tole him You was Boss on that shift and he said you was sick. I reckoned he was talkin strait seein I aint heard from you he giggered His feet around a spell and said all right and I will take Smoke Back to Tramworth. Reckon he Must a tried tien him in the baggage-car same as you done For Smoke was back here nex mornin Smilin al over. Smoke did not bring No Ticket back This trip so mebby he did not git as fur as the Station. Sense you ben gone Swickey she is took with the idea of goin to Tramworth to scule nex fall.... Hopin this finds you in good health as it leaves me yours truly
—— JOHN AVERY.”
David folded the letter slowly. “It’s the asbestos, Aunt Elizabeth. A chap named Harrigan found it while cruising a strip of Avery’s land. Somehow or other he told Wallie about it. It’s a find all right—there’s miles of it in the creekbed, right on the surface. We’re going to take an expert up there and inspect it—it’s five-inch fibre and worth a fortune. We expect to mine and sell it. Heavens, I wish this confounded head of mine hadn’t acted up at the wrong time.”
“But you’re going to get well, David. The doctor says you will have to rest and be quiet for a few months—”