“You were about to remark that it is just as well——”
“That Neddy's reconciled to losing me, because since cabling him yesterday evening I've changed my mind again. I'm going to stay here now.”
“Indeed! Why?”
“Just to be obstinate. Apparently I'm not wanted here by the powers that be; so just to rile them I'm going to hang around Sobrante the way Grant hung around Richmond and argue the question with them. By the way, I see you received a cablegram also. Better news than mine, I hope.”
She nodded. “I have a little business deal on back home. Haven't got a great deal invested, but it looks as if I might make ten thousand dollars.”
He arched his eyebrows and favoured her with a little disapproving grunt. Sounded like the prospectus of a fake mining promoter—yes, by thunder, that was it. Dolores was a school teacher, and school teachers and doctors are ever the mainstay of a swindler's sucker list.
“You won ten dollars from me yesterday,” he challenged. “Bet you another ten I can tell you the nature of your investment.”
“Go you, if I lose!” Unconsciously she was learning the argot of the male of the species, as exemplified in Neddy Jerome's cablegram.
“It's a mining property.”
“You win. It is,” she answered truthfully, starting to open her purse.