--and since then,--oh,
everything has happened!"

"By the dog!" exclaimed the Colonel starting quickly to his feet. "Do
you mean that Crazy Charley spoke the truth? Is the mine really open and
the town full of people and----"

"You wouldn't know it!" cried Virginia, triumphantly. "All that heavy,
white quartz was tungsten!"

"What? That waste on the dump? But how much is it worth? Old Charley
says it's better than gold!"

"It is!" she answered. "Why, some of that rock ran five thousand dollars
to the ton!"

"Five--thousand!" repeated the Colonel, and then he whirled on Wiley.
"What's the reason, then," he demanded, "that you're hiding out here in
the hills? Didn't you get possession of the mine?"

"Under a bond and lease," explained Wiley shortly. "I failed to meet the
final payment."

"Why--how much was this payment?" inquired the Colonel cautiously, as he
sensed the sudden constraint. "It seems to me the mine should have paid
it at once."

"Fifty thousand," answered Wiley, gazing glumly at the ground and the
Colonel opened his eyes!

"Fifty thousand!" he exclaimed. "Only fifty thousand dollars? Well! What
were the circumstances, Wiley?"

He stood expectant and as Wiley boggled and hesitated Virginia rose up
and stood beside him.

"He got the bond and lease from Blount," she began, talking rapidly,
"and when Blount found that the white quartz was tungsten ore, he did
all he could to block Wiley. When Wiley first came through the town and
stopped at our house he knew that that white quartz was tungsten; but he
couldn't do anything, then. And then, by-and-by, when he tried to bond
the mine, Blount came up himself and tried to work it."

"He did, eh?" cried the Colonel. "Well, by what right, I'd like to know,
did he dare to take possession of the Paymaster?"

"Oh, he'd bought up all the stock; and Mother, she took yours and----"

"What?" yelled the Colonel, and then he closed down his jaw and his
blue eyes sparkled ominously. "Proceed," he said. "The information,
first--but, by the gods, he shall answer for this!"

"But all the time," went on Virginia hastily, "the mine belonged to
Wiley. It had been sold for taxes--and he bought it!"

"Ah!" observed the Colonel, and glanced at him shrewdly for he saw now
where the tale was going.

"Well," continued Virginia, "when Blount saw Wiley wanted it he came up
and took it himself. And he hired Stiff Neck George to herd the mine and
keep Wiley and everybody