“Why—yes. He must be.”
“Then he’s got two strings to his bow. I got a straight tip that he’s employed by the Consolidated Ackron Company.”
“The mining company?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“But what is he doing for them?”
“Why, they tell me he’s been in their pay for a long time. Does their dirty work, Miss Dale. Meanin’ that he settles damage cases out o’ court. Man gits hurt in the shaft, or somehow. Before he kin git fixed up by the doctor, ’round comes Philo and offers to pay bills and give the man a small sum. Otherwise man loses his job—you see? If the poor feller’s killed, Philo settles with the widder.”
“I understand,” said Dorothy. “But that would not keep him from taking cases for other people?”
“No, Ma’am. But Philo wouldn’t be likely to take a job that might queer him with the mining company. And them folks want the water jest as bad as they want it out in the desert.”
“But how could they get it?” cried Dorothy, in wonder. “That gorge by which Lost River can be drained off, runs to the edge of the desert. It doesn’t slope north at all.”
“That’s shore an’ sartain, Miss,” declared Lance. “But thet thar ain’t the only way Lost River kin be turned—don’t think it!”