CHAPTER XIV
"PROVE IT!... PROVE IT!"
Sam Bleyer, superintendent of the big Verinder mines, had been up to seehis chief at the hotel and was passing the private sitting-room of theFarquhar party when a voice hailed him. He bowed inclusively to LadyFarquhar, Miss Seldon, and Miss Dwight.
"You called me?"
"I did. Are you in a very great hurry?" Joyce flashed her mostcoquettish smile at him.
"You are never to be in a hurry when Miss Seldon wants you, Bleyer,"announced Verinder, following the superintendent into the room.
Bleyer flushed. He was not "a lady's man," as he would have phrased it,but there was an arresting loveliness about Joyce that held the eye.
"You hear my orders, Miss Seldon," he said.
"Awfully good of you, Mr. Verinder," Joyce acknowledged with a swiftslant smile toward the mine owner. "Just now I want Mr. Bleyer to be aninformation bureau."
"Anything I can do," murmured Bleyer.
He was a thin little man with a face as wrinkled as a contour map ofSouth America. Thick glasses rested on a Roman nose in front ofnearsighted eyes. Frequently he peered over these in an ineffectivemanner that suggested a lost puppy in search of a friend. But in spiteof his appearance Bleyer was a force in Goldbanks. He knew his businessand gave his whole energies to it.
"We're all so interested in Mr. Kilmeny. Tell us _all_ about him,please."
"That's a rather large order, isn't it?" The wrinkles in his leatheryface broke into a smile. "What in particular do you want to know?"
"Everything. What does he do? How does he live? How long has he beenhere?"
"He has been around here about five years. He has a lease in a mine."There was a flinty dryness in the manner of the superintendent thatneither Joyce nor Moya missed.
"And he makes his living by it?"
Above his spectacles the eyes of Bleyer gleamed resentfully. "You'llhave to ask Mr. Kilmeny how he makes his living. I don't know."
"You're keeping something from us. I believe you do know, Mr. Bleyer."With a swift turn of her supple body Joyce appealed to Verinder. "Makehim tell us, please."
Moya did not lift the starlike eyes that were so troubled from the faceof Bleyer. She knew the man implied something discreditable to Kilmeny.The look that had flashed between him and Verinder told her so much. Redsignals of defiance blazed on both cheeks. Whatever it was, she did notintend to believe him.
Verinder disclosed a proper reluctance. "Bleyer says he doesn't know."
"Oh, he _says!_ I want him to tell what he thinks."
"You won't like it," the mine owner warned.
"I'll be the best judge of that." Joyce swung upon Bleyer. "You hear,sir. You're to tell me what you mean."
"I don't mean anything." He paused, then looked straight at Joyce with avisible harshness. "I'll tell you what the common gossip is if you wantto know, Miss Seldon. They say he is a highgrader."
"And what is a highgrader?" demanded Moya.
"A highgrader is one who steals rich ore from the mine where he works,"answered Verinder smugly.
Moya, eyes hot and shining, flashed her challenge at him. "I don'tbelieve it--not a word of it, so far as Mr. Kilmeny is concerned."
"Afraid that doesn't change the facts, Miss Dwight. It's a matter ofgeneral knowledge." Beneath Verinder's bland manner there lurked asubstratum of triumph.
"General fiddlesticks! Don't believe it, Joyce," cried Moya stormily."He doesn't even work as a miner. He owns his own lease."
"He used to work in the mines, even if he doesn't now. There arestories----"
"Ridiculous to think it of Mr. Kilmeny," exploded Moya. "We've donenothing but insult him ever since we've known him. First he was ahighwayman. Now he is a thief. Anything else, Mr. Verinder?"
"Everybody knows it," retorted Verinder sulkily.
"Then prove it. Put him in prison. Aren't there any laws in the state?If everybody knows it, why isn't he arrested?" the Irish girl flamed.
"Moya," chided Lady Farquhar gently.
Her ward turned upon Lady Jim a flushed face stirred by anger to a vividcharm. "Can't you see how absurd it is? He owns his own lease. Mr.Bleyer admits it. Is he robbing himself, then?"
The muscles stood out on the cheeks of the superintendent like cords. Hestuck doggedly to his guns. "I didn't say he stole the ore himself. Thecharge is that he buys it from the men who do take it. His lease is anexcuse. Of course he pretends to get the ore there."
"It's the common talk of the camp," snapped Verinder contemptuously."The man doesn't even keep it under decent cover."
"Then prove it ... prove it! That ought to be easy--since everybodyknows it." Moya's voice was low, but her scornful passion lashed theEnglishman as with a whip.
"By Jove, that's just what I'm going to do. I'm going to put our friendbehind the bars for a few years," the smug little man criedtriumphantly.
The red spots on Moya's cheeks burned. The flashing eyes of the girldefied her discarded lover.
"If you can," she amended with quiet anger.
The soft laugh of Joyce saved for the moment the situation. "Dear me,aren't we getting a little excited? Mr. Bleyer, tell me more. How doesa--a highgrader, didn't you call him?--how does he get a chance to stealthe ore?"
"He picks out the best pieces while he is working--the nuggets that aregoing to run a high per cent. of gold--and pockets them. At night hecarries them away."
"But--haven't you any policemen here? Why don't you stop them and searchthem?"
"The miners' union is too strong. There would be a strike if we triedit. But it has got to come to that soon. The companies will have to joinhands for a finish fight. They can't have men hoisted up from their workwith a hundred dollars' worth of ore stowed away on them."
"Is it as bad as that, Mr. Bleyer?" asked Lady Farquhar in surprise.
"Sometimes they take two or three hundred dollars' worth at once."
"They don't all steal, do they?" demanded Moya with an edge of sarcasmin her clear voice.
Bleyer laughed grimly. "I'd like to know the names of even a few thatdon't. I haven't been introduced to them."
"One hundred per cent. dishonest," murmured Moya without conviction.
"I don't guarantee the figures, Miss Dwight." The superintendent addedgrudgingly: "They don't look at it that way. Bits of high-grade ore aretheir perquisite, they pretend to think."
Verinder broke in. "They say your friend Kilmeny took ore to the valueof two thousand dollars from the Never Quit on one occasion. It ran tothat amount by actual smelter test, the story goes. I've always ratherdoubted it."
"Why--since he is so dishonest?" Moya flung at him.
"Don't think a man could carry away so much at one time. What d'yethink, Bleyer?"
"Depends on how high-grade ore the mine carries. At Cripple Creek wefound nearly four thousand on a man once. He was loaded down like afreight car--looked like the fat boy in 'Pickwick Papers.'"
"Should think he'd bulge out with angles where the rock projected," LadyFarquhar suggested.
"The men have it down to a system there. We used to search them as theyleft work. They carry the ore in all sorts of unexpected places, such asthe shoulder padding of their coats, their mouths, their ears, and inslings scattered over the body. The ore is pounded so that it does notbulge."
"Perhaps I'm doing Mr. Kilmeny an injustice, then. Very likely he didget away with two thousand at one time," Verinder jeered with anunpleasant laugh.
"Yes, let's think the worst of everybody that we can, Mr. Verinder,"came Moya's quick scornful retort.
The Croesus of Goldbanks stood warming himself with his back to thegrate, as smug and dapper a little man as could be found within a day'sjourney.
"Very good, Miss Dwight. Have it your own way. I'm not a bally prophet,you know, but I'll go this far. Your little tin hero is riding for afall. It's all very well for him to do the romantic and that sort ofpiffle, by Jove, but when you scrape the paint off he's just a receiver
of stolen property and a common agitator. Don't take my word for it. AskBleyer." Without looking at him he gave a little jerk of the head towardhis superintendent. "Who is the most undesirable citizen here, Bleyer?Who makes all the trouble for the companies?"
Bleyer shook his head. "I can't back my opinion with proof."
"You know what people say. Whom do the men rely on to back them wheneverthey have trouble with us? Out with it."
"Kilmeny is their king pin--the most influential man in camp."
"Of course he is. Anybody could tell to look at him that he is a leader.Does it follow he must be a criminal?" Moya demanded abruptly.
The superintendent smiled. He understood what was behind thatirritation. "You're a good friend, Miss Dwight."
"It's absurd that I am. He did nothing for Joyce and me--except fightfor us and see that we were sheltered and fed and brought home safely.Why shouldn't we sit still and let his reputation be torn to tatters?"
Bluecher bore down upon the field of Waterloo. "Of course we're 'for' Mr.Kilmeny, as you Yankees say. I don't care whether he is a highgrader ornot. He's a gentleman--and very interesting." Joyce nodded decisively,tilting a saucy chin toward Verinder. "We're _for_ him, aren't we,Moya?"
Lady Farquhar smiled and let her embroidery drop to the table as sherose. "I like him myself. There's something about him that's veryattractive. I do hope you are wrong, Mr. Bleyer. He does not look likean anarchist and a thief."
"That is not the way he would define himself. In this communityhighgrading isn't looked on as theft. Last year our sheriff wassuspected of buying ore from miners and shipping it to the smelters.Public opinion does not greatly condemn the practice." Bleyer, bowing ashe spoke, excused himself and withdrew.
Verinder appealed to Lady Farquhar. The indignation of the newly richsat heavily upon him. With all his little soul he disliked Jack Kilmeny.Since the man had done so signal a service for Joyce, jealousy gnawed athis heart.
"Of course we've got to be decent to the man, I suppose. He had a bigslice of luck in getting the chance to help Miss Seldon and Miss Dwight.And I don't forget that he is a cousin to our friends. If it wasn't forthat I'd say to mail him a check and wipe the slate clean. But ofcourse----"
"You'd never dare," breathed Moya tensely. "I won't have him insulted."
"Of course not, under the circumstances. No need to get volcanic, MissDwight. I merely suggested what I'd like to do. Now the burden is off myshoulders. I have given you the facts."
"You've given us only suspicions, Mr. Verinder. I don't think it wouldbe fair to assume them correct," the chaperone answered.
But Moya knew that Verinder had dropped his seed in fruitful soil. LadyFarquhar would not forget. Jack Kilmeny's welcome would be somethingless than cordial henceforth.
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