“My time is of little value at the present moment, Miss Fuller, because I am doing nothing. For some months past I have been rather out of health, and, in fact, within a few days I expect to leave Chicago.”
“Yes,” she rejoined, “I saw that also in the papers. I read that you intended to go West among the mountains. Is that true?”
“Such are my present intentions, but they are always liable to change. A man who is fighting his own nerves is rather capricious, you know.”
“Like a woman,” laughed Miss Alice. “Well, it is on account of the statement in the Press that I am here. I have been thinking of calling upon you for a long time, but it appears we have no mutual friends who could give me an introduction, and so, seeing you were about to leave the city, I said to myself: ‘It’s now or never.‘The reference to the mountains struck me as a lucky omen. You know we women are rather superstitious, Mr. Steele, and I think it was that even more than your impending departure which gave me courage to venture up here.”
“I am very glad you came,” said John Steele gallantly, “and I shall be more than pleased if there is anything I can do for you.”
“My father is the owner of a gold-mine in the Black Hills. Do you know anything of mines, Mr. Steele?”
John slowly shook his head. The mere mention of a gold-mine did something to clarify his brain from the glamour that was befogging it.
“I know nothing whatever about mines, Miss Fuller, excepting the fact that more gold has been sunk in goldmines than has ever been taken out of them.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear you say that,” replied the girl, with a slight tremor of apprehension in her voice, “and, furthermore, I do not in the least believe it to be true. Indeed, it cannot be true, because it is impossible to sink gold without first having mined it. Nothing can be more lucrative than a good gold-mine, for its product is one of the few things taken from the earth which do not fluctuate in value. With copper, or silver, or iron, you are dependent on the market; not so with gold.”
“You are a very eloquent advocate, Miss Fuller. Where is your father?”