"I did," said Keith, "and so did my assistant, but that is nothing. I have often done that for less money. Many people sit up all night in Gumbolt," he added, with a smile. "That old stage-driver said you were a worker." Mr. Halbrook's eyes were still on him. "Where are you from?" "Born and bred in the South," said Keith. "I owe you something of an apology for what I said yesterday. I shall have some more work for you, perhaps." * * * * * The agent, when he went back to the North, was as good as his word. He told his people that there was one man in Gumbolt who would do their work promptly. "And he's straight," he said. "He says he is from the South; but he is a new issue." He further reported that old Rawson, the countryman who owned the land in the Gap, either owned or controlled the cream of the coal-beds there. "He either knows or has been well advised by somebody who knows the value of all the lands about there. And he has about blocked the game. I think it's that young Keith, and I advise you to get hold of Keith." "Who is Keith? What Keith? What is his name?" asked Mr. Wickersham. "Gordon Keith." Mr. Wickersham's face brightened. "Oh, that is all right; we can get him. We might give him a place?" Mr. Halbrook nodded. Mr. Wickersham sat down and wrote a letter to Keith, saying that he wished to see him in New York on a matter of business which might possibly turn out to his advantage. He also wrote a letter to General Keith, suggesting that he might possibly be able to give his son employment, and intimating that it was on account of his high regard for the General. That day Keith met Squire Rawson on the street. He was dusty and travel-stained. "I was jest comin' to see you," he said. They returned to the little room which Keith called his office, where the old fellow opened his saddle-bags and took out a package of papers. "They all thought I was a fool," he chuckled as he laid out deed after deed. "While they was a-talkin' I was a-ridin'. They thought I was buyin' cattle, and I was, but for every cow I bought I got a calf in the shape of the mineral rights to a tract of land. I'd buy a cow and I'd offer a man half as much again as she was worth if he'd sell me the mineral rights at a fair price, and he'd do it. He never had no use for 'em, an' I didn't know as I should either; but that young engineer o' yourn talked so positive I thought I might as well git 'em inside my pasture-fence." He sat back and looked at Keith with quizzical complacency. "Come a man to see me not long ago," he continued; "Mr. Halbrook--black-eyed man, with a face white and hard like a tombstone. I set up and talked to him nigh all night and filled him plumb full of old applejack. That man sized me up for a fool, an' I sized him up for a blamed smart Yankee. But I don't know as he got much the better of me." Keith doubted it too.