Left alone, Sandy Mackintavers pressed Willyum into a chair and set forth exactly what he had accomplished. He took up the samples of ruby silver ore. "I never saw anything to beat that ore--anywhere!" he said. "And these desert rats never heard of such a thing; all they know is gold. Can ye run a flivver, Bill?" "I can't," said the bewildered Hobbs, "but I guess I can. Why?" "You got to run back to Meteorite to-night--right now!" "Gee!" breathed Willyum, his eyes bulging. "What's the rush?" "Shut up and listen!" roared Sandy. "Aiblins, now, ye think I'm a fool. Well, I'm not! If a minin' lease ain't worked, it lapses; if proper reports ain't made, it lapses; if it's mortgaged, with improvements, it's illegal. Deadoak's deed o' trust ain't worth the paper it's written on, and he knew it!" "But--but you bought it----" "I gave him ten dollars as a free gift. That note, now--when he comes to collect, he'll get nothin'. But I got hold o' the mortgage to save trouble, that's all." "You ain't goin' to pay the note?" "Not hardly!" said Sandy with a grim smile. "My property will all belong to you an' the doc. I guess I can trust you men with it! Now, I bought Piute's deed in order to have clear title to everything. Savvy?" "Not--not yet," murmured Willyum dazedly. "Who owns the mining rights?" "The state! The lease has lapsed long ago, and ain't been renewed. I'm goin' to write out a bill o' sale, givin' you an' Doc all I own, so Deadoak will have nothin' to sue on when he presents that note. After he's out o' the way, we'll settle things. You beat it for Meteorite right off, and when the land office opens in the morning--be there! Take out a mining lease on this entire Morongo Valley homestead land--in your own name. Get it for five years, under the precious metals clause. I'll convey the mortgage to you. Record that in your own name and let her go. We don't need to foreclose on that worthless paper. It simply clinches everything in our name, clear." "But listen! Wait till Doc comes home and----" "Wait for nothin'!" shouted Sandy furiously. "Aiblins, now, d'ye know what this Deadoak scoundrel will do? He knows as well as I do that his mortgage is illegal. About to-morrow night he'll be in Meteorite expecting to lease mining rights on that valley, meaning to stick us later on. Savvy that?" "How d'you know none of these guys ain't done it already?" asked the worried and still bewildered Hobbs. "I'm gambling on their general shiftlessness. Men of that stamp, not expecting us to arrive and not expecting me to buy the place without seeing it, will think they have lots of time to work the double cross. Now, ye'd better run some gas out o' my flivver and fill up your own tank." "But this--this ain't on the square, is it?" protested Bill Hobbs weakly.