"Eh?" ejaculated Simeon Fox, astonished.
"Mr. Bradford, who owns one-half of the Blackstone mine, has sent me out here to look after his interests."
"Then Mr. Bradford must be a fool to employ a whipper-snapper like you."
"That remains to be seen. At any rate, I have come out here with full powers to act for him in any way I see fit."
"Do you expect me to believe all that, youngster?" demanded Fox, surveying our hero disdainfully.
"Please read that," said Paul, drawing out a paper which conferred upon him the power he claimed.
"Well," answered Simeon Fox, "it strikes me there must be a great scarcity of business men in Chicago, when my partner is obliged to send out a half-grown boy like you."
"That doesn't alter the fact that I represent Mr. Bradford, does it?"
"No," answered the old man, slowly.
He was thinking to himself: