assays. If his suspicions
were correct, these assays would represent the richest samples. He
would send them at once to Bishop with a statement of the case, in that
manner putting the capitalist on his guard. There was something
exquisitely humorous to him in the idea of thus turning to his own use
the information which Davidson had accumulated for his fraudulent
purposes. He went to sleep chuckling over it.

CHAPTER XV

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

The next morning the young man had quite regained his good spirits. The
girl, on the other hand, was rather quiet.

Dr. McPherson made no objections to furnishing a copy of the assays.
The records, however, were at the School of Mines. He drove down to get
them, and in the interim the two young people, at Mrs. McPherson's
suggestion, went to see the train come in.

The platform of the station was filled to suffocation. Assuming that
the crowd's intention was to view the unaccustomed locomotive, it was
strange it did not occur to them that the opposite side of the track or
the adjacent prairie would afford more elbow room. They huddled
together on the boards of the platform as though the appearance of the
spectacle depended on every last individual's keeping his feet from the
naked earth. They pushed good-naturedly here and there, expostulating,
calling to one another facetiously, looking anxiously down the
straight, dwindling track for the first glimpse of the locomotive.

Mary and Bennington found themselves caught up at once into the vortex.
After a few moments of desperate clinging together, they were forced
into the front row, where they stood on the very edge, braced back
against the pressure, half laughing, half vexed.

The train drew in with a grinding rush. From the step swung the
conductor. Faces looked from the open windows.

On the platform of one of the last cars stood a young girl and three
men. One of the men was elderly, with white hair and side whiskers. The
other two were young and well dressed. The girl was of our best
patrician type--the type that may know little, think little, say
little, and generally amount to little, and yet carry its negative
qualities with so used an air of polite society as to raise them by
sheer force to the dignity of positive virtues. From head to foot she
was faultlessly groomed. From eye to attitude she was languidly
superior--the impolitic would say bored. Yet every feature of her
appearance and bearing, even to t