"But I'm going to," ended Wilhelmina, and then for the first time he noticed the look in her eye. It was as cold and steely as a gun-fighter's. "Why--what's the matter?" he clamored. "You ain't sore at me, are you? But even if you are, don't sign any papers until I tell you about that mine. How much ore have you got in sight?" "Why, just that one vein, where it goes under the black rock----" "They's two others!" he panted, "that I covered up on purpose. Oh, my Lord, this is simply awful." "Two others!" echoed Wilhelmina, and then she sat dumb while a scared look crept into her eyes. "Well, I didn't know that," she went on at last, "and of course we lost everything, that other time. So when Mr. Eells offered me forty thousand cash and agreed to release you from that grubstake contract----" "You throwed the whole thing away, eh?" He had turned sullen now and petulantly discontented and the fire flashed back into her eyes. "Well, is that all the thanks I get? I thought you _wanted_ that contract!" "I did!" he complained, "but if you'd left me alone I'd've got it away from him for nothing. But forty thousand dollars! Say, what's your doggoned hurry--have you got to sell out the first day?" "No, but that time before, when he tried to buy us out I held on until I didn't get anything. And father has been waiting for his road so long----" "Oh, that road again!" snarled Wunpost. "Is that all you think about? You've thrown away millions of dollars!" "Well, anyway, I've got the road!" she answered with spirit, "and that's more than I did before. If I'd followed my own judgment instead of taking your advice----" "Your judgment!" he mocked; "say, shake yourself, kid--you've pulled the biggest bonehead of a life-time." "I don't care!" she answered, "I'll get forty thousand dollars. And if Father builds his road our mine will be worth millions, so why shouldn't I let this one go?" "Oh, boys!" sighed Wunpost and slumped down in his chair, then roused up with a wild look in his eyes. "You haven't signed up, have you?" he demanded again. "Well, thank God, then, I got here in time!" "No you didn't," she said, "because I told him I'd do it and we've already drawn up the papers. At first he wouldn't hear to it, to release you from your contract; but when I told him I wouldn't sell without it, he and Lapham had a conference and they're downstairs now having it copied. There are to be three copies, one for each of us and one for you, because of course you're an interested party. And I thought, if you were released, you could go out and find another mine and----" "Another one!" raved Wunpost. "Say, you must think it's easy! I'll never find another one in a life-time. Another Sockdolager? I could sell that mine tomorrow for a million dollars, cash; it's got a hundred thousand dollars in sight!"