He got up, went to the table, and helped himself to a drink from the decanter.
“Better have a nip, son, eh?” he asked, as by an afterthought, before leaving the table.
“Not for me,” replied McGlory stoutly. “Pard Matt don’t believe in that sort of thing, and I get along better when I make his notions my own. I’ve found that out more than once.”
The colonel sighed resignedly, but did not press the point. Returning to his chair, he continued his persuasions.
“I knew when I sold you that stock that there was a reef of rich gold ore under the ‘Pauper’s Dream.’ I didn’t want it found until the right minute. Those who had bought stock in the claim got scared. Some of them sold their stock back to me for a song. When I’d got enough of the stock to give me a controlling interest I found the gold vein.”
“That was a double play,” said McGlory bluntly. “There wasn’t anything fair about that, colonel.”
“It was all fair. Some of the stockholders were trying to freeze me out. By letting them think there wasn’t any gold in the ‘Dream’ I turned the tables and froze them out. It was simply a game of diamond cut diamond—and I was a little too sharp for my enemies. That was all right, wasn’t it?”
McGlory thought the colonel had a fair excuse for acting as he had done.
“When we laid open that gold vein,” pursued the colonel, “buyers flocked around the ‘Pauper’s Dream’ like crows around a cornfield. They wanted to buy. I saw a chance to deal with this New York syndicate for big money, so I had the syndicate send out an expert to examine our property. Levitt came. I asked him to make out a true report for the syndicate and a private, false report for—other uses.”
McGlory opened his eyes.