“Yep. And Miss Baldwin. He made two trips, you know. First he came back early in the morning for breakfast, and said they’d found the mine, and you were staying up there to look around. He said we’d all go up after awhile. Then they went away. At noon they came back again. Then was when Doc’ Olson and Miss Baldwin went with him. I tried to horn myself in but he details me to split the watches with Riordan and tells Riordan to see I stay on board. She—Miss Baldwin—asked if I couldn’t go along, and he said no. Then she got into the boat, like she didn’t know whether she wanted to or not, and they pulled away. And, Brains, I’m afraid—I got a hunch he’s got her going south.”
“Got who? Going where?” I asked, not comprehending his slang.
“Got Miss Baldwin—going south. You know: falling for him.” Then as my expression continued to betray my lack of comprehension, “Brack can fool any woman, and he’s got her charmed.”
The pistol which the old miner had given me came to sight at that moment as I undressed, and Pierce gasped.
“You—packing a gat’!” he exclaimed. “What’s happened? Where have you been if you haven’t been up there with the crew?”
I continued my dressing without replying. When completed I again placed the pistol out of sight within my shirt.
“We’ll go and see Wilson,” I said. “Then I’ll only have to tell my story once.”
XXIV
We found the wounded man lying in his bunk calmly dividing his time between a book and his bandaged leg which was stretched out before him. There was no look of pain or mental stress upon his bronzed face. It was all in the day’s work; he would not permit a little thing like a bullet through his leg to disturb his poise.
“I’m all right, sir,” he said. “Be up soon.”