“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. “I see I’ve got you guessing,” laughed the colonel gently. “This is how that private report came to be made out--that private report on which your misguided friend has built such a fabric of unjust suspicions. The men I had frozen out of the company began to threaten legal proceedings. The proceedings wouldn’t have amounted to that”--and the colonel snapped his fingers--“for those fellows hadn’t a leg to stand on; but do you know what they could have done? Why, they’d have tied up the mine for a year or two and prevented the sale to the syndicate. In order to get around that I hired Levitt to make out that fake report, and leave it where those soreheads could see it. Now my hands are free. The sale can be made to the syndicate, and we’ll all win a fortune--providing your misguided friend doesn’t take that cock-and-bull story of his to the meeting to-night.“ “Couldn’t you explain the matter to the syndicate, colonel, just as you have to me?” asked the cowboy. “I could, yes; but they’d shy off. A little thing like that sometimes knocks a big deal galley-west. It’s best not to let any intimation of that fake report reach the ears of the syndicate until we have the syndicate’s money safely in our clothes. Young King means well--I’ll give him credit for that--but he’s shy a couple of chips this hand, and if he butts in we’re going to be left out in the cold. That’s all there is to it.” “Why didn’t you explain this to Matt?”