“But he ain’t,” he ruminated, half to himself. “Lem Huntington knows where he is. Gol ding his flea-bitten hide! I hope Billy cuts him up, like I aim to. Jest let him try robbin’ ol’ Peter Boyd of them Billy Geerusalem claims, an’ I’ll fetch him. I’ll turn a knife into him. I’ll cut him up—chop him to pieces. Jest nacherly make hash outer the skunk. I sure will. Jest nacherly make hash outer him——”
He mumbled on for a spell, then dropped off to sleep, looking for all the world—sitting there before the dying fire—like a little pile of discarded old clothes thrown over a stump.
Warburton waited a few minutes, gazing thoughtfully at him. At last, getting cautiously to his feet, he saddled the mule and struck out for the Huntington ranch. Tinnemaha Pete had given him enough of a clew to go on. More important still, Jerome Liggs and Billy Gee were one and the same. Jerome Liggs, who had disappeared three years ago as if the earth had opened and swallowed him, was alive, here, on the point of capture! Warburton rode slowly, warily along. This was the biggest hour of his whole life. He was on the eve of the greatest triumph of his career.
“I’m a-goin’ to git you, Billy Gee. I’m a-goin’ to git you!” he murmured into the night.
CHAPTER XV—THE POTENT INFLUENCE
As has been said, Geerusalem was at the time the Mecca of the gregarious creatures designated as wildcatters—ruthless, scoundrelly gentlemen who wax fat by selling worthless blocks of fabulous mining stock to gullibles and trusting innocents in far-away places, women being for the most part their easier victims. To-day, they were the power in Geerusalem, and Mrs. Liggs in her talk with Lex Sangerly had not exaggerated the methods of these money-grabbing rascals one whit. They controlled the camp and the representatives of the law. They had the respectable citizenry figuratively by the throat, the newspapers truckling to their wishes. Briefly, they did what they pleased; not altogether openly, however. There was a grand jury down at the county seat, a hundred miles or so away, that might happen to train an eye in their direction, and certain State officials who might start an investigation.
Everything then that was done unlawfully was done under a veneer of mystery, or lacking that, “framed” so cleverly as to deceive the wiliest inquisitor, should such a rare bird appear on the ground.
In the first place, the master mind of this invisible organization was Jule Quintell. He was a formidable character physically and mentally, merciless at the base, diplomatic and rash by turns; in many ways a dual personality who could be trusted to put over whatever he undertook. His was the gift to scheme, to set the stage, to spring the trap, to wrest the holdings from the victim, whether by eviction or the six-shooter, for property—mining property—was what Quintell and his confederates wanted and were getting. Individual claims and groups of claims were piling in on them, and as fast as they were acquired they were parceled off, given a name, put through the process of incorporation, and the stock floated. Exquisitely engraved certificates found their way across the continent to the gullibles and trusting innocents, who dreamed in vain of enormous dividends which would set them on Easy Street in short order.
Claims that gave promise of paying were never thus exploited, however. They were carefully prospected, “dressed up” if they did not fulfill expectations, and through the medium of glowing reports published in the subsidized newspapers, they sold for fancy prices; for there were always rich suckers drifting into this infant prodigy of gold camps, looking to invest.
Boss Quintell’s associates, whom Mrs. Liggs had designated as the “brains” of the element were, even as she had said, assayers, mining engineers, surveyors, stockbrokers. There were more than a score of them; as smug and high-handed a coterie of crooks as ever sidestepped the penitentiary. Against their influence and methods, the reputable competitor was promptly starved out, forced to seek a living in other fields. The monopoly of swindling was perfected to a point where the professions most intimately affiliated with mining were included, these being amply represented in the trusted membership of the magic circle.