She glanced at him with startled eyes.
"No, Glen--please don"t. I"d rather you wouldn"t--just yet. You don"t understand. I can"t let him think I"m--making overtures. He must think I have a _little_ pride. If his mine has been stolen I want to give it back--before he ever sees me again. If you knew how much--oh, how very much, I wish to do that----"
"I"m on," he interrupted. "It will do me good to put a crimp in Searle."
CHAPTER XLI
SUVY PROVES HIS LOVE
If a single ray of far-off hope had lingered in Van"s meditations concerning Beth, and the various occurrences involving himself and his mining property, it vanished when he told her of the letter he had seen and beheld her apparent look of guilt.
One thing the interview had done: it had cleared his decks for action.
He had lain half stunned, as it were, till now, while Bostwick held the "Laughing Water" claim and worked it for its gold. A look that was grim and a heat that would brook no resistance had come together upon him.
That claim was his, by right of purchase, by right of discovery as to its worth! He had earned it by hardships, privations, suffering! He meant to have it back! If the law could avail him, well and good! If not, he"d make a law!
McCoppet he knew for a thief--a "law-abiding" criminal of the subtlest type. Bostwick, he was certain, was a crook. Behind these two lay possibilities of crime in all its forms. That suddenly ordered survey of the line was decidedly suspicious. Bostwick and his fiancee had come prepared for some such coup--and money was a worker of miracles such as no man might obstruct.
Van became so loaded full of fight that had anyone scratched a match upon him he might have exploded on the spot. He thought of the simplest thing to do--hire a private survey of the reservation line, either to confirm or disprove the work that Lawrence had done, and then map out his course. The line, however, was long, surveyors were fairly swamped with work, not a foot could be traveled without some ready cash.
He went to Rickart of the bank. Rickart listened to his plan of campaign and shook his head.
"Don"t waste your money, Van," he said. "The Government wouldn"t accept the word of any man you could hire. Lawrence would have to be discredited. n.o.body doubts his ability or his squareness. The reservation boundary was wholly a matter of guess. You"ll find it includes that ground--and the law will be against you. I"d gladly lend you the money if I could, but the bank people wouldn"t stand behind me.
And every bean I"ve got of my own I"ve put in the Siwash lease."
Van was in no mood for begging.
"All right, Rick," he said. "But I"ll have that line overhauled if I have to hold up a private surveyor and put him over the course at the front of a gun." He went out upon the street, more hot than before.
In two days time he was offered twenty dollars--a sum he smilingly refused. He was down and out, in debt all over the camp. He could not even negotiate a loan. From some of his "friends" he would not have accepted money to preserve his soul.
Meantime, spurred to the enterprise by little Mrs. d.i.c.k, old Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave accepted work underground and began to count on their savings for the fight.
At the "Laughing Water" claim, during this period, tremendous elation existed. Not only had three lines of sluices been installed, with three shifts of men to shovel night and day, but a streak of gravel of sensational worth had been encountered in the cove. The clean-up at sunset every day was netting no less than a thousand dollars in gold for each twenty-four hours at work.
This news, when it "leaked," begot another rush, and men by the hundreds swarmed again upon the hills, in all that neighborhood, panning the gravel for their lives. Wild-catting started with an impetus that shook the State itself. And Van could only grit his teeth and continue, apparently, to smile.
All this and more came duly to the ears of Glenmore Kent and Beth. The girl was in despair as the days went by and nothing had been accomplished. The meager fact that Lawrence had run and corrected the reservation line, at Searle"s behest, was all that Glen had learned.
But of all the men in Goldite he was doubtless best equipped with knowledge concerning Bostwick"s Eastern standing. He knew that Searle had never had the slightest Government authority to order the survey made--and therein lay the crux of all the matter. It was all he had to go upon, but he felt it was almost enough.
The wires to New York were tapped again, and Beth was presently a local bank depositor with a credit of twenty thousand dollars. In a quiet, effective manner, Glen then went to work to secure a surveyor on his own account, or rather at Beth"s suggestion.
With the fact of young Kent"s advent in the town Van was early made acquainted. When Beth procured the transfer of her money from New York to Goldite, Rickart promptly reported the news. It appeared to Van a confirmation of all his previous suspicions. He could not fight a woman, and Bostwick and McCoppet remained upon the claim. Searle wrote nearly every day to Beth, excusing his absence, relating his success, and declaring the increase of his love.
On a Wednesday morning Glenmore"s man arrived by stage from Starlight, instruments and all. His name was Pratt. He was a tall, slow-moving, blue-eyed man, nearly sixty years of age, but able still to carry a thirty-pound transit over the steepest mountain ever built. Glen met him by appointment at the transportation office and escorted him at once to Mrs. d.i.c.k"s.
Already informed as to what would be required, the surveyor was provided with all the data possible concerning the reservation limits.
Beth was tremendously excited. "I"m glad you"ve come," she told him candidly. "Can you start the work to-day?"
"You will want to keep this quiet," he said. "I need two men we can trust, and then I"m ready to start."
"Two?" said Glen. "That"s awkward. I thought perhaps you could get along with little me."
Beth, in her tumult of emotions, was changing color with bewildering rapidity.
"Why--I expected to go along, of course," she said. "I"ve got a suit--I"ve done it before--I mean, I expect to dress as you are, Glen, and help to run the line."
Pratt grinned good-naturedly. "Keeps it all in the family. That"s one advantage."
"All right," said Glen. "Hike upstairs and don your splendors."
He had hired a car and stocked it with provisions, tents, and bedding.
He hastened off and returned with the chauffeur to the door.
Beth, in the costume she had worn on the day when Van found her lost in the desert, made a shy, frightened youth, when at length she appeared, but her courage was superb.
At ten o"clock they left the town, and rolled far out to the westward on their course.
Van learned of their departure. He was certain that Beth had gone to the "Laughing Water" claim, perhaps to be married to Bostwick. Three times he went to the hay-yard that day, intent upon saddling his broncho, riding to the claim himself, and fighting out his rights by the methods of primitive man.
On the third of his visits he met a stranger who offered to purchase Suvy on the spot at a price of two hundred dollars.
"Don"t offer me a million or I might be tempted," Van told him gravely.
"I"ll sell you my soul for a hundred."
The would-be purchaser was dry.
"I want a soul I can ride."
Van looked him over critically.
"Think you could ride my cayuse?"
"This broach?" said the man. "Surest thing you know."
"I need the money," Van admitted. "I"ll bet you the pony against your two hundred you can"t."
"You"re on."
Van called to his friend, the man who ran the yard.
"Come over here, Charlie, and hold the stakes. Here"s a man who wants to ride my horse."