She impulsively kissed the senseless card, and every one smiled sympathetically, even though there was a suspicion of moisture in most eyes.
"I am so glad to find that he had good friends, somewhere, even though he was too proud to let any one know about his relatives. And Ken! I'm so glad to know that he, and you people, will all come in on Choko's Find—or to be exact, it is Montresor's Mine," said Polly.
"That's going to be a fine tangle in law, Polly," remarked Mr. Latimer. "You see, Montresor made you his sole heiress, so the mine is yours, not only by inheritance, but also by rediscovery after it was lost in the first land-slide.
"We stopped at Simms' office to-day—that is what made us late—and learned, without a doubt, that the two claims are the same. As it now stands, Polly and her friends are claim-jumpers on the same claim that Montresor bequeathed to Polly a few years ago. And should you all go to law over the tangle, the State of Colorado would benefit, in-as-much as the costs of an endless suit would fill the State coffers." Mr. Latimer laughed at the picture of such a thrilling law-tangle for his unraveling.
"But we are not going to law, and if that gold is mine so that no one else has any right to say what I can, or cannot do with it, I shall do what I always planned to do with it—even before Nolla and I found it again. I made up my mind that if ever one of dear old Montresor's relatives appeared I would go halves. And if they wanted the whole thing—then they could take it, rather than fight for it. So now I am going to give half to your wife, right off, Doctor, and my other half I will divide with the girls who were with me when we located it again." Polly was magnificent in her earnest generosity.
"Why, Miss Polly, my wife would never accept half of it. Ken wrote something of what you told him, and Mrs. Evans told me to be sure to tell you that you cannot give half away. Besides, the fact that I will have so many friends willing to invest money in this device of mine, is better than all the gold in the Rockies. The jewel-cutter is now an assured success, and it will turn out dollars like a sausage grinder turns out that toothsome breakfast meat."
Every one laughed at the doctor's funny comparison, and he continued: "However, let us hear from Tom and the others, how they managed to get down into the cave if it was buried under such mountains of trash."
"Oh, yes, John! You promised to tell us the moment Mr. Latimer and the doctor arrived," cried Eleanor, eagerly.
So without preamble, John began: "When Mike had made a temporary camp for us on Top Notch, he tried to show Tom and me just where the cave had been. But none other than a clever Indian scout could ever have found one familiar sign anywhere. Even Mike had to hunt and dig and trail around, again and again, before he gave a war-whoop.
"To cut it short, I will say, we found that the ravine upon which the cave opened, was completely filled with trash and, in fact, there were many feet of earth and timber on top of the ledge so that it would need a great deal of digging and blasting before we could hope to enter that cave again.