“Well, I don’t think he was even severely wounded. At any rate, while you were in the mine, staying out the three days and nights, I received a letter from Lawless.”
“A letter?” echoed the scout. “Why didn’t you tell me about that before, Gentleman Jim?”
“It was a threatening letter, and I didn’t want to bother you with it. Lawless, it appears, had gigged back on his proposition. He said you had gone to the mine, and you had not stayed there for the length of time he had specified. That it had not been his intention to give you two trials, and that, consequently, when you went back to the mine the second time, and stayed out the required three days, you were not fulfilling your part of the contract. Of course, it was only a quibble. Lawless had seen that he had failed to play even with you, and that he was going to lose the mine. In his letter to me, he said that if I did not leave the deed on a black boulder at the foot of Medicine Bluff on the night the letter reached my hands, he would put me on his blacklist along with you, and deal with me accordingly.” A slight smile curled the gambler’s lips. “I was not intimidated. When you had stayed in the mine the length of time agreed on, I gave you the deed; you made out another deed to Wah-coo-tah Lawless, and the Forty Thieves now stands, in the recorder’s office at Montegordo, in the name of Wah-coo-tah. It is out of Lawless’ hands.”
“The mine should belong to Wah-coo-tah,” said the scout, “and you did exactly right, Gentleman Jim. Lawless is a contemptible scoundrel, with no more heart in him than a timber-wolf. In losing the mine, he got his come-up-with for that part of his trickery.”
“I am not afraid of Lawless. But what is Wah-coo-tah going to do with the mine, Buffalo Bill? She knows no more about mining than a babe in arms.”
“I have foreseen that part of the difficulty,” the scout returned. “A friend of mine in Denver, by the name of Reginald de Bray——”
“Reginald de Bray!” laughed Gentleman Jim. “That sounds as though there wasn’t much of a man back of it.”
“Exactly; and the name has fooled more people than I know how to tell about. De Bray looks the part, too. He is a mining-man, however, and one in a thousand. I have interested him in the Forty Thieves, and have advised Wah-coo-tah to sell him a half-interest for twenty thousand dollars, and then to let De Bray go ahead and develop the property. He’ll do it, and give Wah-coo-tah every cent that is coming to her. My last advices from De Bray assured me that he would be here on the afternoon stage. I sent Little Cayuse to Montegordo to see if he reached there, and, if he did not, to forward a telegram to him, telling him to hurry. Little Cayuse will also come in on the stage.
“Whenever De Bray travels, he takes it upon himself to act as guileless as he looks, and as his name suggests him to be. This is a whim of his, but he turns it to good account, now and again. He’ll be here, I’m sure, and then the matter of the Forty Thieves Mine can be wound up, and I and my pards can take to the trail and finish our affair with Lawless.”
“You’re going to run Lawless to earth?”