The Furnace of Gold

by Philip Verrill Mighels

  CHAPTER XL

  GLEN AND REVELATIONS

  How she spent that night Beth never could have told. Her mind hadrefused to work. Only her heart was sensible of life and emotions, forthere lay her wound, burning fiercely all the long hours through. ThatVan had made excuses to his partners and disappeared on "business" wasa matter of which she received no account.

  In the morning the unexpected happened. Her brother Glen arrived inGoldite, having driven from Starlight with a friend. He appeared atMrs. Dick's while Beth was still in her room, indisposed. She hadeaten no dinner. She took no breakfast. But with Glenmore's adventshe was suddenly awakened to a new excitement, almost a new sort ofhope.

  Young Kent was a smooth-faced, boyish chap, slightly stooped,exceedingly neat, black-haired, and of medium height. He was like Bethonly in a "family" manner. His nose was a trifle large for his face,but something in his modest, good-natured way, coupled to his earnestdelivery of slang in all his conversation, lent him a certain charmthat no one long resisted.

  He was standing in his characteristic pose, with one hand buried in hispocket, as he laughingly explained himself to Mrs. Dick, when Beth camerunning down the stairs.

  "Glen!" she cried, as she ran along the hall, and casting herself mostfervently upon him, with her arms about his neck, she had a good,sky-clearing cry, furious and brief, and looked like a rain-wet rosewhen she pushed him away and scrutinized him quickly through her tears.

  "I say, Sis, why this misplaced fountain on the job?" he said. "Do Ilook as bad as that?"

  "Oh, Glen," she said, "you've been ill! You were hurt! I've worriedso. You're well? You've entirely recovered? Oh, I'm so glad to seeyou. Glen! There's so much I've got to say!"

  "Land snakes!" said Mrs. Dick. "If I don't hurry----" and off she went.

  "You're the phonograph for mine," said Glen. "What's the matter withyour eyes? Searle hasn't got you going on the lachrymals already?"

  "No, I--I'm all right," she said excitedly. "I didn't sleep well,that's all. Do sit down. I've so many things to say, so much to ask,I don't know where to begin. It was such a surprise, your coming likethis! And you're looking so well. You got my letter, of course?"

  Glen sat down, and Beth sat near, her hand upon his arm. They had beenmore like companions than mere half-brother and sister, all theirlives. The bond of affection between them was exceptionally developed.

  "I came up on account of your letter," he said. "Either my perceptivefaculties are on the blink or there's something decaying in Denmark.It's you for the Goddess of Liberty enlightening the unenlightenedsavage. I'm from Missouri and I want you to start the ticker on thehum."

  "You know what Searle has done?" she said. "How much do you know ofwhat has happened?"

  "Nothing. I've been retired on half knowledge for a month," said Glen."I haven't been treated right. I'm here to register a roar. Nobodytells me you're in the State till I read that account in the paper. Idope it out to Searle that I am bumping the bumps, and there is nothingdoing. He shows up at last and hands me a species of coma and leavesme with twenty-five dollars! That's what I get. What I've been doingis a longer story. I apologize for not having seen your friend whobrought the letter, but it's up to you to apologize for a bum epistleto the Prodigal."

  "Wait a minute, Glen--wait a minute, please; don't go so fast," shesaid, gripping tighter to his arm. "I must get this all as straightand plain as possible. You don't mean to say that Searle reallydrugged you, or something like that--what for?"

  "I want to know," said Glen. "What's the answer? Perhaps he preferredI should not behold your Sir Cowboy Gallahad."

  "There is something going on," she said, "something dark and horrible.How did you happen to show Mr. Van Buren--let him see the last page ofmy letter?"

  "I didn't let him see anything," said Glen. "I was dopy, I tell you.I didn't even see the letter myself. Searle sat on the bed and read italoud--and lit his cigar with part of it later."

  "My letter?" she said, rising abruptly, and immediately sitting downagain. "You never saw---- Searle got it--read it! Oh, theshamelessness! Then--it must have been Searle who made themistake--let Mr. Van Buren see it--see what I wrote--see---- What didhe read you--read about Van--Mr. Van Buren--almost the last thing inthe letter?"

  Glen was surprised at her agitation. He glanced at her blankly.

  "Nothing," he said. "He read me nothing--as I remember--about yourfriend. Was it something in particular?"

  She arose again abruptly and wrung her hands in a gesture of baffledimpatience.

  "Oh, I don't know what it all means!" she said. "To think of Searlebeing there, and intercepting my letter!--daring to read it!--burningit up!--reading you only a portion! Of course, he didn't read you mysuspicions concerning himself?"

  "Not on your half-tone," Glen assured her. "What's all this business,anyway? Put me wise, Sis, I'm groping like a blind snail in themulligatawny."

  Beth sat down as before and leaned her chin in her palm in an attitudeof concentration.

  "Don't you know what Searle has done--taking the 'Laughing Water'claim?--Mr. Van Buren's claim?"

  "I don't know anything!" he told her convincingly. "I'm a howlingwilderness of ignorance. I want to know."

  "Let's start at the very beginning," she said. "Just as soon as Searlebrought your letter--the first one, I mean--in which you asked forsixty thousand dollars to buy a mine----"

  "Whoap! Jamb on the emergency!" Glen interrupted. "I never wrote sucha letter in my life!"

  She looked at him blankly.

  "But--Glen--I saw your letter. I read it myself--at this very table."

  Glen knitted his brows and became more serious.

  "A letter from me?--touching Searle for sixty thou? Somebody's nutty."

  "But Glen--what I saw with my own eyes----"

  "Can't help it. Nothing doing!" he interrupted as before. "If Searleshowed you any such letter as that he wrote it him--hold on, I wrotehim for a grub-stake, fifty dollars at the most, but I haven't evenseen a mine that any man would buy, that the other man would sell, andSearle sure got my first before I was bug-house from that wollop on theblock." He put his hand to the sore spot on his head and rubbed itsoothingly.

  Beth was pale. She failed to observe his gesture, so absorbed were allher faculties in the maze of facts in which she was somewhat helplesslystruggling.

  "Could Searle have written such a letter as that?" she said. "Whatfor?"

  "For money--if he wrote it," said Glen. "Did he touch you for a loan?"

  Beth's eyes were widely blazing. Her lips were white and stiff.

  "Why, Glen, I advanced thirty thousand dollars--I thought to help youbuy a mine. Searle was to put in a like amount--but recently----"

  "Searle! Thirty thousand bucks!" said Glen. "He hasn't got thirtythousand cents! The man who drove me up last night knows the bankcashier, Mr. Rickart, like a brother--and Rickart told him Searle is afour-flusher--hasn't a bean--and looks like a mighty good imitation ofa crook. Searle! You put up thirty--stung, Beth, stung, good andplenty!"

  Beth's hand was on her cheek, pressing it to whiteness.

  "Oh, I've been afraid that something was wrong--that somethingterrible---- Why, Glen, that would be _forgery_--obtaining money underfalse pretences! He may have done anything--_anything_ to get the'Laughing Water' claim! He may have done something--saidsomething--written something to make Van--Mr. Van Buren think thatI---- Oh, Glen, I don't know what to do!"

  Her brother looked at her keenly.

  "You're in trouble, Sis," he hazarded. "Is 'Van' the candy boy withyou?"

  She blushed suddenly. The contrast from her paleness was striking.

  "He's the one who is in trouble," she answered. "And he may think thatI--he does think something. He has lost his mine--a very valuableproperty. Searle and some Mr. McCoppet have taken it away from Mr. VanBuren and all those poor old men--after all their work, theirwaiting-
-everything! You've got to help me to see what we can do!"

  "McCoppet's a gambler--a short-card, tumble weed," said Glen. "You'vegot to put me next. Tell me the whole novelette, beginning at chapterone."

  "As fast as I can," she answered, and she did. She related everything,even the manner in which she and Searle had first become engaged--abusiness at which she marveled now--and of how and when she hadencountered Van, the results of the meeting, the subsequent events, andthe heart-breaking outcome of the trip that Van had made to carry herletter to Starlight.

  In her letter, her love had been confessed. She glossed that item overnow as a spot too sensitive for exposure. She merely admitted thatbetween herself and Van had existed a friendship such as comes but oncein many a woman's life--a friendship recently destroyed, she feared, bysome horrible machinations of Bostwick.

  "You can see," she concluded, "that Mr. Van Buren must think me guiltyof almost anything. He doubtless knows my money, that I thought washelping you, went to meet the expense of taking away his property. Heprobably thinks I sent him to you to get him out of the way, whileSearle and the others were driving his partners off the claim.

  "My money is gone. I asked for its return and I'm sure Searle cannotrepay me. I'm told he couldn't have used so much as thirty thousanddollars in anything legitimate, so far, on the 'Laughing Water' claim.If he'd forge a letter from you, and lie like this and deceive me so,what wouldn't he do to rob these men of their mine?"

  "I scent decay," said Glenmore gravely. "Have you got any plans inyour attic?"

  "Why, I don't know what to do, of course!" she admitted. "But I've gotto do something. I've got to show Mr. Van Buren I'm not a willfulparty to these horrible things. I don't believe I'll ever get my moneyback. I don't want a share of a stolen mine. I'd be glad to let themoney go, and more--all I've got in the world--if only I could prove toVan that I haven't deceived him, haven't taken part in anythingwrong--if only I could make these cheats give the 'Laughing Water'back!"

  "Van _is_ the candy. I'll have to meet him, sure," said Glen withconviction, looking on her face. "I wish you were wise to more of thisgame--the way they worked it--how they doped it out. I'll look aroundand find out how the trick was done, and then we'll go to it together.Guess I'll look for Van right off the bat."

  She glanced at him with startled eyes.

  "No, Glen--please don't. I'd rather you wouldn't--just yet. You don'tunderstand. I can't let him think I'm--making overtures. He mustthink I have a _little_ pride. If his mine has been stolen I want togive it back--before he ever sees me again. If you knew how much--oh,how very much, I wish to do that----"

  "I'm on," he interrupted. "It will do me good to put a crimp inSearle."