g man.

"Yes, I'm getting well fast," she said.

"Hear anything from Larry?" It seemed best to hide his own feelings as
to Larry.

"No."

"Some worried, I expect?"

"No, I do not worry much, Mr. Maclin." Mary-Clare was thinking of her
old doctor's philosophy. She wasn't going to die, so she must live at
once!

"It's a damned mean way to treat a little woman the way you've been
treated."

Maclin stepped nearer and his neck wrinkled. Mary-Clare made no reply
to this. Maclin was conscious of the back of his neck--it irritated
him.

"Left you strapped?" he asked.

"What is that?" Mary-Clare was interested.

"Short of money."

"Oh! no. My wishes are very simple--there's money enough for them."

"See here, Mrs. Rivers, let's get down to business. Of course you know
I want the Point. I'll tell you why. The mines are all right _as_
mines, but I have some inventions over there ripe for getting into
final shape. Now, I haven't told a soul about this before--not even
Larry--but I always hold that a woman _can_ keep her tongue still. I'm
not one of the men who think different. I want to put up a factory on
the Point; some model cottages and--and _make_ King's Forest. Now what
would you take for the Point, and don't be too modest. I don't grind
the faces of women."

Maclin smiled. The fat on his face broke into lines--that was the best
a smile could do for him. Mary-Clare looked at him, fascinated.

"Speak up, Mrs. Rivers!" This came like a poke in the ribs--Mary-Clare
recoiled as from a physical touch.

"I do not own the Point any longer," she said.

"What in thunder!" Maclin now recoiled. "Who then?"

"I gave it to Larry."

"How the devil could Larry pay you for it?"

"Larry gave me no money."

"Do you expect me to believe this, Mrs. Rivers?" The fat now resumed
its flaccid lines.

"It doesn't interest me in the least, Mr. Maclin, whether you do or
not."

Then Mary-Clare rose, rather weakly, and turned toward the bridge.

And there stood Maclin alone! Like all people who have much that they
fear to have known, Maclin considered now how much Larry really knew?
Did he know what the Point meant? Had he ever opened letters? This
brought the sweat out on Maclin.

Had he copied letters with that devilish trick of his? Could he sell
the Point to--to----?

Maclin could bear no longer his unanswered questions. He went back to
the mines and was not seen in King's Forest for many a day.

CHAPTER XI