For a moment the girl inspected him, her head, just lifted, resting on her locked arms, her eyelids half closed.
"You knew--what? Something"s happened I know; something unusual, very. I never saw you before as you are to-day. I"d almost say you had nerves. Do you care to tell me?"
Roberts was still smiling.
"Do you care to have me tell you?" he countered.
"Yes, if you wish."
"If I wish--if I wish--you told me that once before, you recall."
"Yes."
"And I proceeded to frighten you--horribly. You said so."
"Yes," again.
"Does that mean you wish to be frightened again? Do you enjoy it?"
"Enjoy it? I don"t know. I"m curious to listen, if you care to tell me."
Roberts had stretched himself luxuriously on the cool sod. He looked up steadily, through the tangled leaves, at the dotted blue beyond.
"There"s nothing to frighten you this time," he said. "Nothing to tell much, just--money."
"I gathered as much."
"And why, Elice?"
"Several reasons. First of all, a practical man doesn"t carry an automobile half across the continent by express without a definite stake involved. Later he doesn"t "sc.r.a.p," as you say, that same machine without regret unless the stake was big--and won."
"You think I won, then?"
"I know."
"And again, why?"
The girl flashed a glance, but he was not looking at her.
"Because you always win," she said simply.
"Always?" A pause. "Always, Elice?"
"Always in matters of--money."
The man lay there still, looking up. Barely a leaf in the big maple was astir, not a single sensate thing. Had they been the only two people alive on a desert expanse they could not have been more isolated, more completely alone. Yet he pursued the lead no further, neither by word nor suggestion. Creeping through a tiny gap a ray of sunlight glared in his eyes, and he shifted enough to avoid it. That was all.
In her place the girl too shifted, just so she could see him more distinctly.
"Tell me about it," she said. "I"m listening."
"You"re really interested? I don"t care to bore you."
"Yes, really. I never pretend with you."
Slowly Roberts sat up, his head bare, his fingers locked over his knees.
"Very well. I "phoned, you remember, that I was going West to look at a mining claim."
"Yes."
"What I should have said, to be exact, was that I was going to file on one, if it wasn"t too late. I"d already seen it, on paper, and ore from it; had it a.s.sayed myself. It ran above two hundred dollars. It was one of those things that happen outside of novels oftener than people imagine. The man who furnished the specimens was named Evans,--a big, raw-boned cowboy I met down in the Southwest, where I"ve got an interest in a silver mine. He"d contracted the fever and worked for our company for a time. When the Nevada craze came on he got restless and wanted to go too. He hadn"t a second shirt to his back so I grub-staked him.
Nothing came of it and I staked him again. This time he came here personally to report. He had some ore with him and a map; just that and nothing more. Whether he"d found anything worth while he didn"t know, didn"t imagine he had, as it was a new section that hadn"t produced as yet. He hadn"t even taken the trouble to secure his claim. What he wanted was more money, grub money; and he had brought the specimen along as a teaser. He swore he hadn"t mentioned the matter to a soul except me.
There wasn"t any hurry either, he said, or danger. The prospect was forty miles out on the desert from Tonopah, no railroad nearer, and no one was interested there much as yet. If I"d advance him another thousand, though--I"d been backing him a thousand dollars at a time--he"d go back and file regular, and when I"d had an a.s.say made, if the thing looked good, he"d sell to me outright for five thousand cash."
For the first time the speaker halted, looked at the listener directly.
"Still interested, are you?" he queried. "It"s all money, money from first to last."
"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 circ.u.mstances 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 a.s.say 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 circ.u.mstances 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 t.i.tle 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.
"I tried to reason with him, to argue with him, offered him his own terms if he"d let me develop it; but he wouldn"t listen. If I wouldn"t accept he"d throw me over entirely, notwithstanding the fact that I"d made the find possible, and sell to some one else--sell something he didn"t have; for at last it all came out, why he"d gone crazy and wouldn"t wait. He"d lied to me previously. Before he"d left Tonopah he"d talked, told of his find to a half-dozen of his friends, and left them specimens of the same ore he"d brought me. He"d told them everything, in fact, except the location. It developed that he had retained judgment enough to keep back even a hint of that; and they were waiting for him there,--he knew it and I knew it,--waiting his return, waiting to learn the location, and to steal his claim before he could stake it himself."
"And still, feeling certain of that in your own mind, you paid him his price!"
"Every dollar of it--before I took the midnight train West. I raised it after business hours, in a dozen different ways; but I got it. I pooled for security everything I had in the world--except Old Reliable; I kept that free for a purpose,--my house, my library, my stock in the traction company, some real estate I own. I had to give good measure because I had to have the money right then. And I got it. It was a pull but I got it."
The girl"s head was back on her folded arms once more, the long lashes all but covering her eyes.
"Supposing Evans had been lying to you after all," she suggested, "in other things besides the one you mentioned."