cigen, Thomas
Savine said:

"I'm going to talk straight, Geoffrey. Your friend told me the whole
thing, and I agree with his opinion. See here, you are safe for life
if you hold fast to what you have got now--and the Lord knows whether
we will ever be successful in the canyon. Of course the money would
help us, but it isn't sufficient to make victory dead certain, and it
would be a drop in the bucket if we came down with a bang, as we may
very well do. Even considering what's at stake, I couldn't let you
make the plunge without protesting."

"If I had ten times as much, or ten times as little, it would all go
after the rest," replied Geoffrey. "I appreciate your good intentions,
but you can't, and never will, convince me, so there's no use talking.
You will, in the meantime, say not a word to Miss Savine on the
subject."

Next morning Geoffrey said to his guest:

"I want you to write out a telegram to your partner in England.
Yonder's a mounted messenger waiting for it. He's to sell everything
bequeathed to me at the best price he can. You have done your best,
Halliday, and I suppose I ought to be more grateful than I am, but you
see I'm rather fond than otherwise of a big risk. We'll ride over with
Mr. Savine and call upon my partner to-day."

It was late in the afternoon when the two arrived at the ranch which
Savine had rented. It was the nearest dwelling to the camp that could
be rendered comfortable, but lay some distance from it, over a very bad
trail. Helen was not cordial towards Geoffrey, who left her to
entertain Halliday, and slipped away to the room looking down the
valley, where his partner sat with a fur robe wrapped about his bent
shoulders. Savine's face had grown very hollow and his eyes were
curiously dim.

"It was good of you to come, Geoffrey," he said; "How are you getting
on in the canyon?"

"Famously, sir. We are certainly going to beat the river," was the
prompt answer, and remembering the accession of capital, Geoffrey's
cheerfulness was real. "I'm hoping to ask Miss Savine to fire the
final shot some time before the snows melt."

Savine looked at him with a trace of his old keenness, and appeared
satisfied that the speaker believed in his own prediction. Then he
smiled as he answered:

"You do me good, Geoffrey. Good news is better than gallons of
medicine, and when you make such a promise I feel I can trust you. I'm
grateful, but it's mighty trying to lie here help