The La Chance Mine Mystery

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but for Marcia-and to Macartney, the new incumbent of Thompson's shoes. Dudley, little and fat, in the dirty boots he had worn all day, and just a little loaded, told me to wait till the morning or go to the devil, when I asked about the mine. Cha

a bone at the wrists; but I had a curious feeling that they were the very strongest hands I had ever seen on a girl. Remembering Dudley, it hurt me to look at her; and suddenly something else hurt me worse, that I had been a fool not to have thought of before. Macartney, the mine superintendent, was new there; I knew no mo

tween him and my dream girl. It was impossible to be sure, of course, but I was nearly sure. She spoke to him as she spoke to Marcia and Dudley-she never addressed one word to me-just easily and simply, as people do who live in the same house. Macartney himself talked mostly to Marcia, which was no business of mine. Only I was somehow curiously thankful that it had not been Macartney whom Paulette had meant to meet in the dark. There was something about his eyes that said he was no safe cu

hat Marcia and I were thinking about her she might have good reason to be angry. Also that Dudley probably knew all about her evening

manding irritably. "I couldn't see a sign of you when Marci

and I saw the color go out of

aid deliberately, "if she's ashamed to own

rl, and more fool still to think I had found her there waiting for me. I said something about being tired and went off to bed. I was tired, right enough, but I was something else too. All that business about the girl I meant to find and marry may sound like a child's silly game to you, but it had been more than a game to me. It had been a solid prop

e room was stifling-and a sudden queer sense that some one or something was under my window made me stand there without raising it. And there was some thing, anyway. The windows in the shack were about a yard above the ground. There was a glimpse of the moon through the wind-tortured clouds, now on the rough clearing, now o

Marcia had said was only "called" Paulette Brown. I jerked up the window and stood waiting for the wolf to run. And it did not take the least notice of me. I could have shot it ten times over, but

. But one more impossibility in an impossible day did n

and prompted me to stay just where I was. I looked at Dudley-little, fat, pompous, and so self-opinionated that it fairly stuck out of him-and thought that if I had a fair chance I could take my dream girl from him. I might be dark as an Indian and without a cent to my name except the few dollars I had sunk in the mine, but I did not drink or eat drugs; and I knew Dudley did one and guessed he did the other. Interfering with him was out of the question, of course;

ere ran back flat to a hill, a quarter of a mile from the water, with a solid rock face like a cliff. Along that cliff face came first Dudley's shack, then Thompson's tunnel, th

iven a new tunn

knew how far, and carrying thick, free gold that assayed incredibly to the ton. The La Chance mine, whose name had been more truth than poetry-for when I made fifty

s no fear, either, of his being interfered with in the bonanza he had struck; for leaving out my infinitesimal share, Dudley was sole owner,-and he had bought a thousand acres mining concession from the Government for ten dollars an acre, which is the law when a potential mining district in unsurveyed territory is more than twenty m

et some snowsheds built along the face of the workings-they ought to have been started a week ago. Why in the devil"-drink and drugs do not make a man easy to work wi

tioned my missing horse. I did not mention my stay in Skunk's Misery: it was a side show of my own, to my mind, and unconnected wi

think I'd forgotten about it, but I suppose I must h

him?" I had had no

performing dog! And he wasn't fit for his work, either. I told him so, and he said he'd go. He went

m Skunk's Misery, and I ought to have seen Thompson go by. But the solution was simple. There was one Monday and Tuesday I had my road gang off in the bush, on t

returned carelessly. "This Maca

rtney for whom my dream girl had mistaken me in the dark

wind straight out o

and I! He saw, just as I did, that he wasn't the man for the place. Macartney struck that vein first go off, and that w

have been Macartney who was tangled up with Paulette Brown. Old Thompson's friends were not that sort, and he vouched for knowing Macartney all his life. He was a well-know

essor," said I idly. "When did he write this?" For there was

shelters built as quick as you can build them-we don't want to have to dig out the new tunnel mouth every time it snows. Aft

humming stope. One glance around told me Dudley was right, and the man knew his business; and it was the same over at the mill. It seemed to me superintendent was a mild name for Macartney, and general manager would have fitted better. But I said nothing, for Dudley considered he was general manager himself. Another thing that please

is superintendent, but it was no business of mine. And anyhow, Macartney had my blessing since it could not be he to whom Paulette Brown had meant to speak the night before. That ought to have been none of my bus

s," Macartney returned drily, and I rather liked him

m through mine, and we went back to the house by the back door and Charliet's untidy kitchen. It was the shortest way, and it was not till afterwards that I remembered it was not commanded by the window in his office, like the front way. I

on the way, "and that I'm not going to undo. Bu

ose?" I shrugge

ere but me, and"-he gave a shove at the office

ocked desk; Dudley's safe against the wall. And turning away from the safe, in her b

ome sort of a letter she had been writing lay half finished on Dudley's desk. But something totally outside me told me she had been writing no letter while we

surprise at seeing her there. But I had seen a pin dot of blue sealing wax on the glimpse of white blouse that showed through the open front of her sweater,

ing as I gave it to her. Dudley did not see me do it; and, of course, it might have been a seal of his own. But, if it

hat I had helped her to keep some kind of a secret for the second time. And that if s