"It is binding," corrected Wiley, "until the property is bought back--and I happen to be holding the deed. Now, here's the point--what authority have you got for coming in here and working this property?" "Well, you may as well know," replied Blount shortly, "that I own a majority of the stock." "Aha!" burst out Wiley. "I was listening for that. So you're the Honest John?" "What do you mean?" demanded Blount and, seeing the anger in his eyes, he hastened to head off the storm. "No, now listen to me, Wiley; it's not the way you think. I knew your father well, and I always found him the soul of honor; but I never liked to say anything, because Colonel Huff was my partner, too. So, when this trouble arose, I tried to remain neutral, without joining sides with either. It pained me very much to have people make remarks reflecting upon the honesty of your father, but as the confidant of both it was hardly in good taste for me to give out what I knew. So I let the matter go, hoping that time would heal the breach; but now that the Colonel is dead----" "Aha!" breathed Wiley and Blount nodded his head lugubriously. "Yes," he said, "that is the way it was. Your father was absolutely honest." "Well, but who sold the stock, and then bought it back--and put all the blame on my father?" "I can't tell you," answered Blount. "I never speak evil of the dead--but the Colonel was a very poor business man." "Yes, he was," agreed Wiley, and then, after a silence: "How did it happen that you got all his stock?" "Well, on mortgages and notes; and now as collateral on a loan that I made his widow. I own a clean majority of the stock." "Oh, you do, eh?" observed Wiley and rubbed his jaw thoughtfully while Blount looked mildly on. "Well, what are you going to do?" "Why, I'd like to buy back that tax deed," answered Blount amiably, "and get control of my property." "Oh," said Wiley, and looked down the valley with eyes that squinted shrewdly at the sun. "All right," he agreed, "just to show you that I'm a sport, I'll give you a quit-claim deed right now for the sum of one hundred dollars." "You will?" challenged Blount, reaching tremulously for his fountain pen and then he paused at a thought. "Very well," he said, but as he filled out the form he stopped and gazed uneasily at Wiley. Here was a mining engineer selling a possessory right to the Paymaster for the sum of one hundred dollars; while he, a banker, was spending a hundred dollars a day in what had proved so far to be dead work. "Er--I haven't any money with me," he suggested at length. "Perhaps--well, perhaps you could wait?" "Sure!" replied Wiley, rising up from where he was seated, "I'll wait for anything, except my supper. Where's the best place to eat in town, now?" "Why, at Mrs. Huff's," returned Blount in surprise. "But about this quit-claim, perhaps a check would do as well?" "What, are the Huffs still here?" exclaimed Wiley, starting off. "Why, I thought----"