"I see by these endorsements," replied Wiley, "that you sold out before the panic and bought in all this stock afterwards." Blount started and a red line mounted up to his eyes as he hastily glanced over the option. "Well, I'll sign it," he mumbled, and reached for the pen, but Wiley checked his hand. "No, you ring for a notary," he said. "I want that signature acknowledged." The notary came and ran perfunctorily through his formula, after which he left them alone. "Now here's the bond and lease," went on Wiley curtly, "so bring on your Board of Directors and let's get this business over. By rights I ought to kill you." There was a special meeting then of the Board of Directors of The Paymaster Mining and Milling Company, and when the bond and lease was properly drawn up, they signed it and had it witnessed. Then once more the tense silence came over the room and Wiley rose to go. "Well," he said, "I've been waiting for ten years just to get these papers in my hands. And now, you danged crook, just to hit you where you live, I'm going to make a fortune." "A fortune!" echoed Blount, and then he clasped his hands and sank down weakly in a chair. "I knew it!" he moaned, "I knew it all the time--you've been trying to get that mine for months. But what is it, Wiley? Have you located the lost vein? Oh, I knew it; all the time!" "Yes, you did," jeered Wiley, "you didn't know anything, except how to grab hold of the stock. What good was it to you after you'd got the old mine--you didn't know what to do with it! All you knew was how to rob the widow and the orphan and deprive better men of their good name. You wait till I tell my Old Man about this--and how you were selling him out, all the time. If it wasn't for you he'd never been called Honest John by a bunch of these tin-horns and crooks. But I'll show you who's honest--I'm going to skin you alive for what you did to my father. You wait till I make my clean-up!" "But what is it, Wiley?" cried Blount, despairingly. "Have you really discovered the lost vein?" "No," grinned Wiley, "but I've consulted an expert and he tells me the mine is worth millions!" "What--millions?" burst out Blount, struggling up to his feet. "Now here, Wiley Holman; I want that option back! You secured it by fraud and misrepresentation and by concealment of the actual facts. I'll have the law on you--I'll break the contract--you came here with intent to defraud!" "Don't you think it!" returned Wiley, thrusting out his lip. "You thought you were trimming me, like taking candy from a baby. Why didn't _you_ get an expert? I offered to hire out to you, myself!" "Oh--hell!" choked Blount. "Well, tell me the worst--where was it he told you to dig?" "Why right down the shaft," answered Wiley blandly. "He's a new kind of mining expert and he locates the gold by electricity."