d they developed the mine together. It turned out
very rich and such a rush you never saw--this valley was full of tents
for miles--but it was so far from the railroad--seventy-four miles to
Vegas--that the work was very expensive. The Company was reorganized and
Mr. Blount, the banker, was given a third of the promotion stock. Then
the five hundred thousand shares of treasury stock was put on the market
in order to build the new mill; and when the railroad came in there was
such a crazy speculation that everybody lost track of the transfers. My
husband, of course, was generous to a fault and accustomed to living
like a gentleman--and he invested very heavily in real estate, too--but
this Mr. Blount was always out for his interest and Honest John would
skin a dead flea."

"Honest John!" challenged Wiley, looking up from his eating with an ugly
glint in his eye, but the Widow was far away.

"Yes, Honest John Holman," she sneered, without noticing his resentment.
"They called him Honest John. Did you ever know one of these 'Honest
John' fellows yet that wasn't a thorough-paced scoundrel? Well, old John
Holman he threw in with Blount to deprive Colonel Huff of his profits
and, with these street certificates everywhere and no one recording
their transfers, the Colonel was naturally deceived into thinking that
the selling was from the outside. But all the time, while they were
selling their stock and hammering down the price of Paymaster, they were
telling the Colonel that it was only temporary and he ought to support
the market. So he bought in what he could, though it wasn't much, as he
was interested in other properties, and then when the crash came he was
left without anything and Blount and Holman were rich. The great panic
came on and Blount foreclosed on everything, and then Mr. Huff fell out
with John Holman and they closed the Paymaster down. That was ten years
ago and, with the litigation and all, the stock went down to nothing.
The whole camp went dead and all the folks moved away--but have you ever
been through the mine? Well, I want you to go--that ground has hardly
been scratched!"

Wiley Holman glanced up doubtfully from under his heavy eyebrows and the
Widow became voluble in her protests.

"No, sir," she exclaimed, "I certainly ought to know, because the
Colonel was Superintendent; and when he had been drinking--the town was
awful, that way--he would tell me all about the mine. And that was his
phrase--h