California -- Fiction; Mines and mineral resources -- Fiction; Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) -- Fiction; Western stories
"The funeral pyre of my worldly fortune!" he apostrophized. "The lost
mine of Bolivio will be lost indeed when the map has burned."
Together they watched the tiny fire in silence, till the black wax
sputtered and dripped down on the stone, and the eager flames crinkled
the envelope and its contents and reduced them to ashes.
"And now?" said Oliver.
"And now!" echoed Jessamy.
He slowly placed both arms about her and lifted her, unresisting, to her
feet. He drew her close, brushed back her hair, and looked deep into
eyes from which tears streamed unrestrained. Then she threw her arms
about his shoulders, and, with a glad laugh, half hysterical, she drew
his head down and kissed him time and again.
His hour had come. Oliver Drew had captured the star that had led him on
and on--his Star of Destiny. Warm were her lips and tremulous--glowing
were her eyes for love of him. His pulse leaped madly as she gave
herself to him in absolute surrender.
"There's another matter," he said five minutes later, as she lay silent
in his arms, with the fragrance of her hair in his nostrils. "Old
Danforth, the head of the firm of attorneys that attended to Dad's
affairs, looked at me keenly from under shaggy brows when I gave my
answer.
"'So it's No, is it, young man?' he said.
"'No it is,' I told him.
"'In that case,' he said, 'you are to come with me.'
"He took me to a bank and opened a safe-deposit box in the vaults. He
showed me bonds totalling over a hundred thousand dollars, and cash that
represented the interest coupons the firm had been clipping since Dad
died.
"'Here's the key,' he told me. 'If your answer had been yes, these
bonds, too, would have gone to the church. For then you would have had
the gems. Your father didn't mean to leave you penniless. You would have
been fairly well off, I imagine, whether your answer had been Yes or No.
Your father wanted his question answered by a man of education, and I
think he would be pleased at your decision.'"
Jessamy had straightened and twisted in his arms till her face was close
to his.
"Peter Drew never hinted at that to me!" she cried. "I--I suppose you'd
have nothing but the Old Ivison Place if you answered No. Oh, my
romantic Old Peter Drew! God rest his soul! I'm so glad."
"Glad, eh?" He smiled whimsically at her, and she quickly interpreted
his thoughts.
"Oh, but, Oliver--you don't understand! It's not that you're wealthy,
after all--but now you can give Damon Tamroy just what the cement
company would have paid him for Lime Rock!"
"Lime Rock shall be your wedding gift," he laughed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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