There was little levity in Carr's make-up at any time; just now his
speech was as sober as his look.
'I am thinking about you and your father, to begin with,' he replied
gravely. 'I have been over yonder all day.' He swept out an impatient
arm toward Dry Gulch. 'They call it Sanchia's Town. And it is a town
already. I saw Nate Kemble there; he's the big man of the Quigley
Mines, and you see how long it has taken him to get on the spot. Your
father evidently made no mistake in his location. There's gold there,
all right!'
Helen waited expectantly for him to go on. For certainly the fact that
her father had been able to find gold was no cause for Carr's frowning
eyes.
'My blood has been boiling all day,' Carr blurted out angrily.
'Longstreet should be a rich man to-day and he has gained nothing. I
saw Nate Kemble pay one man ten thousand dollars for his claim; Kemble
wouldn't pay that if the thing were not worth a great deal more.
Kemble doesn't make many mistakes. Your father stumbled on to the
place and then he couldn't hold it. When do you think he will make
another discovery? And, if his lucky star should lead him aright
again, is he the man to cash in on his luck? Don't you see, Helen,
that James Edward Longstreet in this man's land is a fish out of water?'
'I understand what you mean,' Helen nodded slowly. Again her look
wandered through the fields stretching out far below. 'And you are
right. I didn't want papa to come in the first place; now, as you say,
he is only wasting time.' She smiled a little tenderly. 'He is just a
dear old babe in the woods,' she concluded softly.
Carr's approval of her mounted swiftly to admiration. They lowered
their voices and spoke at length of the professor and of what should be
done for him. They agreed perfectly that, while he was an unusually
fine technical man and an able instructor in matters of geological
theorizing, he was not the man to wander with a prospector's pick
across these rugged lands.
'Even grant the extremely unlikely,' concluded Carr hastily as they
heard the subject of their discussion moving about in the cabin, 'and
admit that he may chance upon a second strike. What then? Why,
Sanchia and Devine and Courtot and a crowd of hangers-on have their
eyes on him. They'd oust him again with not the shadow of a doubt or a
second's hesitation.'
Helen nodded and they went in together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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