"Yes, go on. I think I saw this man Evans, didn't I, around with you for several days?" "Possibly. I kept him here while I was getting a report. I'd seen some ore before and the scent looked warm to me. Besides, I knew Evans, and under the circumstances I felt better to keep him in sight. I did for a week, night and day. He never left me for an hour. He'd been eating my bread and salt for a year, had every reason to be under obligation and loyal, was so tentatively, his coming proved that; but, while one has to trust others up to a certain point in this world, beyond that--I've found beyond that it's better not to take chances, even on obligation.... Have you ever known anything of the kind yourself?" The girl was not looking at him now. "I've had little experience with people," she evaded, "very little. Go on, please. I'm interested." "Well, the report came the day I 'phoned you, on the last delivery. Evans was killing time, as usual, about the office and I called him into my private room and locked the door. I read it through to him aloud, every word; and, he didn't seem to take it all in at first, again. All at once the thing came over him, the full meaning of that assay of two hundred dollars to the ton--and he went to pieces, like a fly-wheel that's turned too fast. He simply caved. For ten years he'd been chasing the rainbow of chance, and now all at once, when he'd fairly given up hope, he'd stumbled upon it and the pot of gold together. It was too much for him. "This was at five o'clock in the afternoon, I say. At six o'clock I unlocked the door and things began to move definitely. What happened in that hour doesn't matter. It wasn't pleasant, and under the circumstances no one would believe me if I told; for I had his written promise to show me the ledge he'd found and to sell whatever right he had to the claim himself to me for twenty-five thousand dollars.... I found it, I have an incontestable title to it, and I refused a million dollars flat for it less than three days ago!" In her place the girl half raised, met the speaker eye to eye. "And still, knowing in advance it was worth a fortune, Evans sold to you." "Yes, voluntarily; begged it of me. I said no one would believe me now, even you--I don't care for the opinion of any one else." "I don't doubt you, not for a second." The brown eyes had dropped now. "But I can't quite understand." "No, I repeat once more, no one can understand who wasn't there. He was crazy, avariciously crazy. He wanted the money then, then; wanted to see it, to feel it, that minute. It was his and he wanted it; not the five thousand he'd promised, but five times that. He wouldn't wait. He would have it.