could that be?"

"Fact, 'pon my word! High-grade ore too, we fancy; but we'll know more
about that when we hear from the assayer."

The matron intercepted the look of triumph--it was almost a jeer--that
the mine owner flung toward Miss Dwight. She did not understand what he
was talking about, but she saw that Moya did.

"If you'd tell us just what happened we'd be able to congratulate you
more intelligently," the latter suggested, masking her anxiety.

"Jove, I wish I could--like to tell you the whole story. We pulled off a
ripping surprise on one of your friends. But--the deuce of it is I'm
sworn to secrecy. We played the highgraders' game and stepped a bit
outside the law for once. Let it go at this, that the fellow had to
swallow a big dose of his own medicine."

Moya pushed one more question home. "Nobody hurt, I suppose?"

"Only his feelings and his pocketbook. But I fancy one highgrader has
learned that Dobyans Verinder knows his way about a bit, you know."

The subject filled Moya's thoughts all day. Had Kilmeny after all failed
to take advantage of her warning? Or had his opponents proved too shrewd
for him? From what Verinder had told her she surmised that Jack had
tried to reach the railroad with his ore and been intercepted. But why
had he not changed his plans after her talk with him? Surely he was not
the kind of man to walk like a lamb into a trap baited for him.

Late in the afternoon Moya, dressed in riding costume, was waiting on
the hotel porch for India and her brother when she saw Verinder coming
down the street. That he was in a sulky ill humor was apparent.

"Lord Farquhar and Captain Kilmeny came back a couple of hours ago," she
said by way of engaging him in talk.

"Any luck?" he asked morosely and with obvious indifference.

"A deer apiece and a bear for the captain."

"That fellow Kilmeny outwitted us, after all," he broke out abruptly.
"We've been had, by Jove! Must have been what Bleyer calls a plant."

"I don't understand."

"The rock we took from him was refuse stuff--not worth a dollar."

The girl's eyes gleamed. "Your gold mine was salted, then."

"Not even salted. He had gathered the stuff from some old dump."

"He must have profited by my warning, after all," Moya said quietly.

The little man's eyes narrowed. "Eh? How's that? Did you say your
warning?"

In spite of herself she felt a sense of error at having played the
traitor to her host. "Sorry. I didn't like to