“In New York I looked up my partner and we discussed the plan and he agreed with me that it was a good one. Now, I’m down here this morning to offer you $10,000 outright for the use of half a dozen of your aeroplanes, and a salary of $5,000 as instructor to the aviators I shall have to have to run them. How does the offer strike you?”
“I—er—well, I hardly know what to say,” responded Roy; “you see, it’s a bit sudden. It rather takes my breath away.”
“Well, that’s a way we have in the West,” was the response, “but maybe I’d better tell you a little more about myself. My name is Jim Bell. I’m worth a couple of million or thereabouts. You can verify that by referring to the First National Bank of ’Frisco, or the East Coast Bank of New York City. I’ve got interests in cattle, wool and mines, but the very best mining proposition I ever struck I ran across out on the Nevada alkali desert in a range of barren hills. We were prospecting there when I was told about it. After untold hardships I found the spot and staked it out. But there arose the difficulty of transportation. There was the gold all right, but how was I to get it out?”
“I came East to see if I couldn’t get some sort of automobile built that would travel the desert, but when I saw that aeroplane of yours droop down at that jerkwater junction, I realized I had found what I wanted. Now, are you on?”
“You’ll have to give us a little time to think, sir,” rejoined Roy; “it’s a very flattering offer and I’d like to accept it, but I’ll have to think it over.”
“Quite right, quite right,” rejoined the other, “nothing like thinking it over. If every one did that fewer accidents and mishaps would occur in life. Take my own life, for instance. I’ve often thought I’d go back to see the old folks, but in that case I thought it over too long, for when I went to the old home the other day it was all gone. Not a stick or stone remained. My parents were dead and my only brother was no-one-knew-where.”
Jim Bell’s voice shook strangely. He blinked his eyes once or twice and then resumed briskly: “You see, I left home in a mighty queer way. I was out in a boat with my brother when it got overturned. He was drowned, I guess, but anyway I found myself drifting about on the Sound. I managed to seize hold of a bit of floating driftwood and in that way kept my head above water till a ship came along and picked me up.
“She was a big vessel bound for China and her captain was a brute. On our arrival in the Far East he bound me out as a sort of apprentice to a rich Chinaman living in the interior. I was with him for ten years before I escaped. I worked my way to the coast, got another ship and headed for California.
“On the way across there was a mutiny and I saved the life of a wealthy passenger, who turned out to be a mining man and who, when he died two years later, left me most of his property. That gave me my start in life, and now I’m a millionaire. But I’d give it all if I could get some news of poor brother Peter and find out if he is dead or alive.”
“Maybe we can help you,” cried Peggy, her eyes shining and her white hands clasped excitedly.