“He talks like a fool!” snapped the mining engineer.
“He is misinformed, that’s all,” said the colonel.
“I’m not misinformed,” went on Matt sturdily. “These New York capitalists hired Levitt to go to Arizona and investigate the ‘Pauper’s Dream.’ He made two reports, one private and the other for the members of the Syndicate. One says the mine is no good, and the other, of course, gives it a glittering recommendation.”
“How do you know,” asked Levitt, his voice shaking with anger, “that the Syndicate’s report is different from the other?”
“Because Colonel Billings is paying you for making it,” replied Matt. “Would the colonel give you good money for handing that private report over to the Syndicate? Hardly. Colonel Billings is here to sell the mine.”
“How do you know Billings is paying me anything?”
“He has already paid you a little, and you came out here this morning to receive the rest of it. If that crazy runabout of yours hadn’t interfered, you’d have been able to turn the private report over to the colonel, and no one would ever have been the wiser.”
“How do you know all this?” Levitt’s voice was husky.
“There was a letter from the colonel in the envelope along with the report.”
“By gad!” Billings whirled on the mining engineer. “You don’t mean to say, Levitt,” he asked, “that you had so little sense as to keep that letter of mine?”