that you might spurn me. Then in my heart rose another fear,
and I cursed myself for a craven. I feared that chance might favor you
in locating your father's strike, and then people would say, 'he loves
her for her wealth.' I even thought that you, yourself, might
doubt--might ask yourself why he waited until I became rich before he
told me of his love? But, believe me, my dear lady, for your wealth, I
care not the snap of my fingers--so!" He snapped his fingers loudly
and continued: "But say the word, and we will go far from the hill
country, and leave your father's secret to the guardianship of his
beloved mountains. For I am rich. I own mines, mines, mines! What is
one mine more or less to me?"

Patty Sinclair felt herself drifting under the spell of his compelling
ardor. "Why not?" she asked herself. "Why not marry this man and give
up the hopeless struggle?" She thought of her depleted bank account.
At best, she could not hope to hold out much longer. Bethune had taken
her hand as he talked, and she had not withdrawn it from his palm.
Swiftly he bent his head and pressed the brown hand passionately to
his lips. She felt his grip tighten as the burning kisses covered her
hand--her wrist. She drew the hand away.

"But, I do not want to leave the hill country," she said, quite
calmly. "I shall never leave it until I have vindicated my father's
course in the eyes of the people back home--the men who scoffed at
him, and called him a ne'er-do-well, and a dreamer--who refused to
back his judgment with their miserable dollars--who killed him with
their cruelty, and their doubt!"

"I hoped you would say that!" exclaimed Bethune, his eyes alight with
approval. "I knew you would say it! The daughter of your father could
not do otherwise. I knew him well, and loved him as a son should love.
And I, too, would see his judgment vindicated in the eyes of all the
world. Listen, together we will remain, and together we will locate
the lost strike, if it takes every cent I own." The man's voice
gripped in its intensity, and Patty's eyes returned from the distance
where the summer haze bathed far mountain tops in soft purple, and
looked into the eyes of velvet black.

"But, why should you want to marry me?" she inquired, a puzzled little
frown wrinkling her forehead. "You hardly know me. You have not always
lived in the hills. You have met many women."

"A man meets many women. He marries but one. You ask me why I want to
marry