"Hey?"
"Tellin" you a ghost story."
"You mean--"
"Can"t you understand plain English?" she said, irritated at such obtuseness. "I got worried thinkin" it over, for it was me told that pardner o" yours--" She smiled wickedly. "I expected McGinty"d have some fun with the young feller, but I didn"t expect you"d be such a Hatter." She wound up with the popular reference to lunacy.
The Colonel pulled up his great figure with some pomposity. "I don"t understand."
"Any feller can see that. You"re just the kind the McGintys are layin"
for." She looked round to see that n.o.body was within earshot. "Si"s been layin" round all winter waitin" for the spring crop o" suckers."
"If you mean there isn"t gold out at McGinty"s gulch, you"re wrong; I"ve seen it."
"Course you have."
He paused. She, sweeping the Gold Nugget with vigilant eye, went on in a voice of indulgent contempt.
"Some of "em load up an old shot-gun with a little charge o" powder and a quarter of an ounce of gold-dust on top, fire that into the prospect hole a dozen times or so, and then take a sucker out to pan the stuff.
But I bet Si didn"t take any more trouble with you than to have some colours in his mouth, to spit in the shovel or the pan, when you wasn"t lookin"--just enough to drive you crazy, and get you to boost him into a Recordership. Why, he"s cleaned up a tub o" money in fees since you struck the town."
The Colonel moved uneasily, but faith with him died hard.
"McGinty strikes me as a very decent sort of man, with a knowledge of practical mining and of mining law--"
Maudie made a low sound of impatience, and pushed her empty gla.s.s aside.
"Oh, very well, go your own way! Waste the whole spring doin" Si"s a.s.sessment for him. And when the bottom drops out o" recordin", you"ll see Si gettin" some cheechalko to buy an interest in that rottin" hole o" his--"
Her jaw fell as she saw the Colonel"s expression.
"He"s got you too!" she exclaimed.
"Well, didn"t you say yourself that night you"d be glad if McGinty"d let you a lay?"
"Pshaw! I was only givin" you a song and dance. Not you neither, but that pardner o" yours. I thought I"d learn that young man a lesson. But I didn"t know you"d get flim-flammed out o" your boots. Thought you looked like you got some sense."
Unmoved by the Colonel"s aspect of offended dignity, faintly dashed with doubt, she hurried on:
"Before you go sh.e.l.lin" out any more cash, or haulin" stuff to Glory Hallelujah, just you go down that prospect hole o" McGinty"s when McGinty ain"t there, and see how many colours you can ketch."
The Colonel looked at her.
"Well, I"ll do it," he said slowly, "and if you"re right--"
"Oh, I"m all right," she laughed; "an" I know my McGinty backwards.
But"--she frowned with sudden anger--"it ain"t Maudie"s pretty way to interfere with cheechalkos gettin" fooled. I ain"t proud o" the trouble I"ve taken, and I"ll thank you not to mention it. Not to that pardner o" yours--not to n.o.body."
She stuck her nose in the air, and waved her hand to French Charlie, who had just then opened the door and put his head in. He came straight over to her, and she made room for him on the bench.
The Colonel went out full of thought. He listened attentively when the ex-Governor, that evening at Keith"s, said something about the woman up at the Gold Nugget--"Maudie--what"s the rest of her name?"
"Don"t believe anybody knows. Oh, yes, they must, too; it"ll be on her deeds. She"s got the best hundred by fifty foot lot in the place. Held it down last fall herself with a six-shooter, and she owns that cabin on the corner. Isn"t a better business head in Minook than Maudie"s.
She got a lay on a good property o" Salaman"s last fall, and I guess she"s got more ready dust even now, before the washin" begins, than anybody here except Salaman and the A.C. There ain"t a man in Minook who wouldn"t listen respectfully to Maudie"s views on any business proposition--once he was sure she wasn"t fooling."
And Keith told a string of stories to show how the Minook miners admired her astuteness, and helped her unblushingly to get the better of one another.
The Colonel stayed in Minook till the recording was all done, and McGinty got tired of living on flap-jacks at the gulch.
The night McGinty arrived in town the Colonel, not even taking the Boy into his confidence, hitched up and departed for the new district.
He came back the next day a sadder and a wiser man. They had been sold.
McGinty was quick to gather that someone must have given him away. It had only been a question of time, after all. He had lined his pockets, and could take the new turn in his affairs with equanimity.
"Wait till the steamers begin to run," Maudie said; "McGinty"ll play that game with every new boat-load. Oh, McGinty"ll make another fortune. Then he"ll go to Dawson and blow it in. Well, Colonel, sorry you ain"t cultivatin" rheumatism in a damp hole up at Glory Hallelujah?"
"I--I am very much obliged to you for saving me from--"
She cut him short. "You see you"ve got time now to look about you for something really good, if there _is_ anything outside of Little Minook."
"It was very kind of you to--"
"No it wasn"t," she said shortly.
The Colonel took out a roll of bank bills and selected one, folded it small, and pa.s.sed it towards her under the ledge of the table. She glanced down.
"Oh, I don"t want that."
"Yes, please."
"Tell you I don"t."
"You"ve done me a very good turn; saved me a lot of time and expense."
Slowly she took the money, as one thinking out something.
"Where do you come from?" he asked suddenly.
""Frisco. I was in the chorus at the Alcazar."
"What made you go into the chorus?"
"Got tired o" life on a sheep-ranch. All work and no play. Never saw a soul. Seen plenty since."
"Got any people belonging to you?"
"Got a kind of a husband."