“Granted,” she admitted steadily; “but is it worth while?”
“Worth while? How do I know—or any one. It’s necessary for some one to know. It’s part of the big game. Farther than that—My hair is all gray now—and I don’t know.”
His companion looked away, with a little gesture of impatience.
“Last of all, the mine itself?” she suggested.
Roberts hesitated, his face inscrutable as a book closed.
“If I knew what you wanted to know,” he said at last, “I’d tell you; but I don’t. It’s fabulous, if that answers your question. It’s like Aladdin’s lamp: there’s nothing material on the face of the earth it won’t give for the asking. It’s producing enough now daily to keep a sane man a year. It’s power infinite for good or evil, and creating more power day by day.” He halted, then unconsciously repeated himself. “Yes, power infinite, neither more nor less.”
There was a long silence before his companion spoke. 338
“And power, you said once, was the thing you wanted most. You have it at last.”
“Yes, I have it at last, that’s true. I can command the services of a thousand men, to work for me or amuse me; or for another if I direct. I can pass current anywhere at any time, and make any one I care to name pass current with me. The master key is in my possession tight. I can choose my tools for whatever I wish done from a multitude. The material is limitless, for I can pay. Besides, as I said before, this power is increasing inevitably, whether I’m asleep or awake, growing by its own momentum. I have it at last, yes; but it neither is nor ever was what I wanted most, Elice. I said I wanted it, you’re right; but I never said I wanted it most. You know what I want most in the world, Elice.”
Listening, Elice Gleason folded her hands tight, until the blood left the fingers.