"But you can't keep it secret always. You'll have to file your claim, and you can't file on all of Canada.… I want to ask you something about it."
"No doubt," with his old bitter smile. "For a fortune you'd repay me with a smile, would you? You'd find easier game in the gilded youth on Broadway."
Her lips grew a little cruel as she answered him.
"You may tell me as much or as little as you like. You may lie to me and tell me that your gold is twenty miles westward of here while it may be twice or half that distance eastward. Or you may leave that part out altogether. But it would be another matter to answer the one question I will ask." Her eyes were upon him, very alert, watchful for a sign as she asked her question: "Were the nuggets free and piled up somewhere where some man before you had placed them?"
If she sought to read his mind against his will she had come to the wrong man. It was as though Drennen had not heard her.
"Are you married to either of the hang dogs with whom you are travelling?" he asked.
"No," she answered indifferently.
"They're both in love with you, no doubt?"
"I fancy that neither is," she retorted equably. "Both want to marry me, that's all."
Drennen gazed thoughtfully down into the valley, pursing his lips about his pipe stem.