A TIP
For the next few days the girls took possession of Allen, showing him
the sights with a will and showering him with details of their
adventures till the poor fellow's head was in a whirl and he could
hardly tell whether it was the wolves or the landslide that had
frightened the girls into the cave on that memorable afternoon.
"Seems to me," he said, as the girls showed him the cave--at a safe
distance from the mountain, one may be sure--"that you young ladies need
a chaperone pretty badly."
"Do you think you're it?" teased Mollie.
"Great guns! I should hope not," said Allen, with a flash of his white
teeth. "I would rather face a dugout full of Boches than try to keep
tabs on you girls. See here," he added, suddenly serious. "Do you mean
to tell me that you were really caught in that cave with your horses and
nothing to dig your way out with but your hands?"
"And a few sharp stones that we found," Betty nodded soberly.
Allen whistled softly.
"No, I should think not," he said slowly. "It's a wonder that with you
and your horses, too, in that small space, you didn't smother before aid
could reach you."
"We should have," spoke up Amy quickly, "if it hadn't been for Betty.
She was the one who kept us at it when we were ready to give up."
"Yes, and she was the one that kept at it when the rest of us _had_
given up," Mollie reminded her. "She was the one who kept digging until
she forced the hole through. If it hadn't been for her we would have all
given up and just died there, I guess."
Betty, who had been getting redder and redder through this recital of
her heroism, found it hard to meet Allen's eyes as he turned to her with
all his heart in his own.
"The girls give me altogether too much credit," she protested. "Anybody
will fight when he has his back against the wall. And now let's take
Allen to see Dan Higgins' mine," she added lightly. "Dan Higgins and his
daughter Meggy are great friends of ours, Allen, and I know you will
love them as much as we do."
"Your friends will always be mine," Allen assured her gallantly, and
they rode off gayly toward Gold Run.
On the way they told him a good deal of Dan Higgins and Meggy, and Allen
listened with sympathetic interest.
"That surely is tough," he said boyishly. "But of course his case is no
different from that of hundreds of others who have come out here to
'God's Country' in the hope of beating the daily grind and jumping to
fortune at one fell swoop. That sounds rather Irish, doesn't it?" he
added, with his contagious grin.
"You're right about that, I suppose," said Betty gravely. "As you say,
Dan Higgins is just one of a hundred others in the same pitiful fix. But
at least he has had his dreams and the excitement of gambling. He chose
this sort of life, and so we don't feel so awfully sorry for him. But it
is his daughter Meggy that we pity. She is really a wonderful girl,
Allen, and to condemn her to a life of work and poverty is really a
crime."
"Well, I didn't do it," said Allen plaintively, adding quickly as
Betty's face clouded: "I beg your pardon, little girl, I didn't mean to
be flippant. But, like her father, there are many others in the
position of this girl. A man can't choose to live a life like that
without dragging his family into it too."
"Then he shouldn't have a family," said Mollie hotly. "He should make up
his mind to be an old bachelor--though I don't think there is anything
worse under the sun," she added, with such emphasis that the girls
giggled.
"I agree with you there," said Allen, adding whimsically: "But what a
man should do and what he does do are often very different things."
"But you speak of Dan Higgins and Meggy as if they were just ordinary
people," Grace objected, as she flicked the reins gently on Nabob's
arching neck. "You seem to forget that they saved our lives--probably."
"No, I don't forget that," said Allen gravely. "And I respect your wish
to do something in return. I also owe them a debt of gratitude." His
eyes unconsciously sought Betty's, and a quick glance passed between
them that was more eloquent than words.
"Then you will help us to help him?" said Betty quickly.
"I'll do anything I can," Allen answered, adding, rather dubiously: "But
I don't see what any one can do for them. If the old man hasn't struck
gold yet and is short of funds to finance further search, I don't see
what any one can do for him. Do you?" he added, looking at her.
"No-o," admitted Betty reluctantly. "I haven't thought of a way yet. But
I'm sure I shall," she added so bravely that the girls wanted to hug
her.
They reached the Higgins' mine soon after this, and at the sound of
their approach Meggy ran eagerly out to them, as she always did. But
when she saw Allen, looking to her unsophisticated eyes like some hero
out of a story book, handsome and city-bred, she halted and turned red
with embarrassment.
However, Allen, by his own gracious and friendly manner, soon set her at
ease, but her eyes continued to follow every movement of his as though
in amazement that such a perfect creature could live.
"Better look out, Betty," Grace whispered to the Little Captain when
nobody was looking. "Meggy thinks Allen is pretty nice. Just watch her,
she's hypnotized."
But Betty only smiled. Somehow, she felt pretty sure of Allen.
The latter struck up a great friendship with old Dan Higgins right
away--wonderful how everybody took to Allen, thought Betty proudly--and
soon they were talking like old friends. In five minutes Allen had
found out more about Dan Higgins' mine and his prospects than the girls
would have learned in a year.
Toward the end Allen managed to put a few adroit questions concerning
Gold Run Ranch and the possibility of there being gold upon it.
"Waal now," drawled Higgins, spitting upon the ground reflectively,
"folks here'bouts used to wonder why old Jed Barcolm didn't get busy and
find out if there was gold on thet property, but somehow th' old man
never seemed to get interested. Conservative old fellow, Jed Barcolm,
anyways--allus said he'd made enough raisin' cattle and didn't aim to do
no prospectin' at his time o' life."
"But you think there is a good possibility of there being gold on the
ranch?" insisted Allen, and the girls held their breath.
Dan Higgins gave him a shrewd look and spat once more.
"You thinkin' of doin' a little prospectin' on your own hook, Son?" he
inquired.
"Heavens, no!" answered Allen with convincing sincerity, adding with a
smile: "It is barely possible that my client might, though."
The old man started and stood upright, squaring his thin shoulders
belligerently.
"You don't mean to tell me you're one o' those ornery lawyer cusses,"
he said, with a disgusted emphasis that angered the girls but apparently
left Allen unmoved.
"A lawyer--but not ornery, I hope," he said pleasantly. "And my client
is Mrs. Nelson, the new owner of the ranch. Is there anything else you
would like to know about me?"
But the old man's anger had departed and he regarded Allen with a shrewd
twinkle in his kindly blue eyes.
"Sorry, Son," he said. "I reckon there are some honest lawyers, though I
never ain't met one yet--not round here leastways."
"Thanks for a rather doubtful compliment," laughed Allen. It was evident
that he was enjoying the old man extremely. "I assure you, though I am
not always honest, there are times when I try very hard to be." Then he
suddenly added: "By the way, do you happen to know a man around
here--one of those ornery lawyers--by the name of Peter Levine?"
Again Dan Higgins spat disgustedly.
"Know him!" he answered with a wealth of scorn in his voice. "I reckon
most everybody round here knows him--an' they's mighty few knows any
good o' him. Take my advice, Son, an' keep away from him."
"Thanks," said Allen dryly. "But the problem seems to be to keep him
away from us. He is representing a client who wants to buy Gold Run
Ranch."
The old man started and a gleam of excitement shot into his eyes while
Meggy, seeming to share his emotion, crept closer to him.
"Peter Levine wants you to sell," he repeated eagerly, then relaxed once
more into his drawl, though his eyes reflected a strange inward turmoil.
"Listen, Son," he said. "Ef you let that snake in the grass argy you
into sellin', you're a bigger fool 'n I take you to be. An' what's
more," his voice lowered and the girls leaned forward eagerly, "if Peter
wants that there property of yourn there's gold on it, you can bet your
last dollar onto it. Pete ain't no angel, an' he don't work for
nothing."
Burning with excitement themselves, the girls marveled that Allen could
take this statement so calmly.
"Thanks for the tip," he said, in his ordinary voice. "I had some such
idea myself, but it certainly helps to have my judgment backed by
somebody who knows the people in the case."