“What sort of man is it you want? or what is it you want to tell me?”
“Only that I’ve found a plan of the ground where he made that rich find the letter told of,” she answered, with a bit of a tremble in her voice. “He’s never been able to look after it himself, and was afraid to trust any one. But now—”
“And you have the plan—you, ’Tana?”
“Yes, I have it. I think I even know where the place is located. But—don’t ask me anything about how I got the plan. He knows, and is satisfied—that is all.”
“But, ’Tana, I don’t understand. You are giving me surprises too thick this evening. If he has found a rich yield of ore, and has taken you into partnership, it means that you will be a rich woman. A streak of pay ore can do more for you than a ranger like myself; so I guess you can afford to drop me.”
Her face fell forward in her hands again. The man in the chair looked at her and then turned his eyes pleadingly to the other man, who remained standing close to the door.
Overton recognized the pleading quality of the glance, and was filled with amazement by it. Witchery seemed to have touched the stranger when paralysis touched him, else he would not so quickly have changed from his suspicion of the girl into that mute pleading for her. 149
She was trying so hard to keep back the tears, and in the effort her jaws were set and her brows drawn together stormily. She looked to him as she had looked in the lodge of Akkomi.
“You don’t trust me,” she said at last; “that’s why you won’t help us. But you ought to, for I’ve never lied to you. If it’s because I’m in it that you won’t have anything to do with the mine, I’ll leave. I won’t bother you about that school. I won’t bother you about anything. I’ll help locate the place if—if Joe here is willing; and then you two can be partners, and I’ll be out of it, for I can trust you to take care of him, and see that the money does what it can for him. I can trust you if you can’t me. So you are the one to speak up. What is your answer?”