“Nevertheless—” protested John, but the girl interrupted him, her eyes aglow with fervour.
“You promised to listen, you know. There is another point I wish to put before you. The ore is very rich, and if we ship much of it, there is bound to be inquiry as to where it came from. Now, my father has been able to stake out only a comparatively small claim. If once it becomes known where this ore originates, there will be the usual rush. The rush is ultimately inevitable in any case, but my father is anxious to be fully secure before it comes.”
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Miss Fuller,” said John in a burst of enthusiasm, “I’ll give you a thousand dollars; and if you make money out of your mine, you can repay me at your leisure.”
Alice Fuller slowly shook her golden head.
“I could not accept money in that way,” she said. “It is like the giving of charity when a pathetic tale is told. Besides, a thousand dollars would be of no particular use; it would not purchase the stamp-mills, or transport them to the mine. In two months, or three, we should be just where we are now, and the thousand dollars would be gone.”
“What is it, then, you wish me to do, Miss Fuller?”
“I wish our transaction to be upon a sane business basis, and I don’t want you to offer me a thousand dollars or twenty thousand dollars, or two hundred thousand dollars again.”
“I beg your pardon. I had no thought of charity or anything of the sort when I made my proposal.”
“I am sure you hadn’t,” said the girl, with a naïve confidence which Steele found very charming. “I’ll tell you what I wish to suggest. You are going to the mountains in any case. Very well, go to the Black Hills; there you will find the air pure and bracing; there are wild mountains and sparkling streams, and everything that a tired city man could desire. I want you to camp near our mine and investigate it thoroughly. If you are so satisfied with it as to justify the risk, I ask you to be prepared to buy a half share for three hundred thousand dollars.”
John Steele drew a long breath.