In her place the girl too shifted, just so she could see him more distinctly.
“Tell me about it,” she said. “I’m listening.”
“You’re really interested? I don’t care to bore you.”
“Yes, really. I never pretend with you.”
Slowly Roberts sat up, his head bare, his fingers locked over his knees.
“Very well. I ’phoned, you remember, that I was going West to look at a mining claim.”
“Yes.”
“What I should have said, to be exact, was that I was going to file on one, if it wasn’t too late. I’d already seen it, on paper, and ore from it; had it assayed myself. It ran above two hundred dollars. It was one of those things that happen outside of novels oftener than people imagine. The man who furnished the specimens was named Evans,—a big, raw-boned cowboy I met down in the Southwest, where I’ve got an interest in a silver mine. He’d contracted the fever and worked for our company for a time. When the Nevada craze came on he got restless and wanted to go too. 231 He hadn’t a second shirt to his back so I grub-staked him. Nothing came of it and I staked him again. This time he came here personally to report. He had some ore with him and a map; just that and nothing more. Whether he’d found anything worth while he didn’t know, didn’t imagine he had, as it was a new section that hadn’t produced as yet. He hadn’t even taken the trouble to secure his claim. What he wanted was more money, grub money; and he had brought the specimen along as a teaser. He swore he hadn’t mentioned the matter to a soul except me. There wasn’t any hurry either, he said, or danger. The prospect was forty miles out on the desert from Tonopah, no railroad nearer, and no one was interested there much as yet. If I’d advance him another thousand, though—I’d been backing him a thousand dollars at a time—he’d go back and file regular, and when I’d had an assay made, if the thing looked good, he’d sell to me outright for five thousand cash.”
For the first time the speaker halted, looked at the listener directly.
“Still interested, are you?” he queried. “It’s all money, money from first to last.”