Devine smiled. "I guess he's buying mining tools. You can't keep that man out of a hardware store," he said. "I wanted to bring him back, but he was feeling better, and made up his mind to go out on the Atlantic express. He asked me to make his excuses, as he had fixed to meet an American machinery agent, and wasn't quite sure he could get round." "Perhaps it is just as well," said Mrs. Devine, who appeared reflective. "Do you think you are wise in encouraging that man to come here, Grant?" "I wouldn't exactly call it that. I brought him. He didn't want to come." "You are, of course, quite sure?" and Mrs. Devine's smile implied that she, at least, was a trifle incredulous. "Hasn't it struck you that Barbara----" "So far as I've noticed lately, Barbara didn't seem in any way pleased with him." Mrs. Devine made a little impatient gesture. "That," she said, "is exactly what I don't like. It's a significant sign. Barbara wouldn't have been angry with him--if it was not worth while." "You said nothing when he came to the ranch, while we were at the mine." "The man was pleasant company, and there was, it seemed to me, very little risk of a superior workman attracting Barbara's fancy." Devine laughed. "I guess I was of no great account when you married me." "Pshaw!" said Mrs. Devine. "Anyway, you hadn't plotted to steal a mine from the people I belonged to." Devine's eyes twinkled. "It showed his grit, and 'most anything is considered square in a mining deal. Besides, there were the six thousand dollars Slocum took out of him." "I am quite aware that such transactions are evidently not subject to the ordinary code, but, seriously, if you would be content with Harford Brooke as my brother-in-law, it is considerably more than I would be. We don't even know why he left the Old Country." "Well," said Devine, drily, "I guess I have a notion. I've been finding out a good deal about him. But get on with your objections." "Barbara has a good many dollars." "So has Brooke. You needn't worry about that point." Mrs. Devine's astonishment was very apparent. "Then whatever is he working at the mine for--and why didn't you tell me before?" "I guess it's because that kind of thing pleases him, and, anyway, it's only since last mail came in I knew." "You're quite sure, now?" "I'll tell you what I heard. There was a man who bought up our stock in England when nobody else seemed to have any use for it. The directors wanted to know a little about him, and they found it was a trust account. He was taking up the stock for another man, who had been left quite a few dollars, and that man was called Harford Brooke. The executor, it seems, told somebody that the man he was buying for was here. Now, it's not likely there are two of them in this part of Canada."