et
of this camp, and he knows it."

It would have surprised Keith had he known how accurately the young
engineer he had glanced at and dismissed as almost an amateur at the
game, followed the trend of his scheming. There is not much variation in
the methods of Mining Promotion, and Westlake was an observer and a
conserver of the pith of what he had seen.

"Fifty-one per cent., an' the name's Molly Casey, then," said Sandy.
"What's more, you're to be consulting engineer or whatever they call the
fat job, Westlake. I'm dawg-tired. Sam, let's you an' me shack over to
our claims. We'll leave Mormon where he is till he gits his sleep out,
if you've no objection, marm?"

* * * * *

Sandy, Sam and Mormon returned to the Three Star with the papers drawn
and signed and the shares of stock issued that gave twenty-six per cent.
of the Molly property to her and twenty-five to the three partners.
Keith returned to New York with his forty-nine per cent. to weave his
plans for the full development of the claims he had acquired.

While he lacked the controlling interest, there was always, he fancied,
a chance of division between the four who held control. Either he could
get the girl to vote apart from the three partners or he might split
them some way or another. But, wisely, he did not count on this. And he
took up the task of exploitation with zest, Blake, primed with material
and notes gathered on the spot, a ready and expert assistant.

When Wilson Keith made up his mind there was money in a plan--money for
Wilson Keith--he lost no time in planning and carrying out all details.
He loved the excitement of the gamble, he loved to evolve some play for
which he could pat himself upon the back and tell himself how much
cleverer he was than the public, swimming up to his golden-baited hooks
like so many fish. Thornton, expert mining engineer, believed the
prospects good for the new camp at Casey Town; but Keith, with Blake,
who was a wizard at publicity, delighted most in the way it lent itself
to exploitation.

Blake, nosing here and listening there, while Keith satisfied himself as
to the legality of Sandy's guardianship of Molly and the powers that had
been granted him to look after all her interests, assuring himself of
the speciousness of Plimsoll's claim for grubstake interest. Blake,
weaving fact into fiction, compiled the romance of Molly Casey, daughter
of the wandering prospector, Patrick