“When you came to Oreville had you any idea that I was here?”
“No; if I had probably I should not have struck the town, as I knew that you didn’t have a favorable opinion of me.”
“I can’t make out much of that fellow, Rodney,” said Jefferson. “I can’t understand his object in coming here.”
“He says he wants to buy a mine.”
“That’s all a pretext. He hasn’t money enough to buy a mine or a tenth part of it.”
“He seems to have money.”
“Yes; he may have a few hundred dollars, but mark my words, he hasn’t the slightest intention of buying a mine.”
“He has some object in view.”
“No doubt! What it is is what I want to find out.”
There was another way in which Louis Wheeler made himself popular among the miners of Oreville. He had a violin with him, and in the evening he seated himself on the veranda and played popular tunes.