and Rutherford were promptly at the depot, as agreed, to take
the early morning train to the mines.

Mr. Blaisdell met them with a great show of cordiality, his thin lips
contracted into a smile which was doubtless intended to be very
agreeable, but which produced a sensation exactly the reverse.

"Well," Rutherford began, with his peculiar drawl, when he and Houston
were seated together in the car, with Mr. Blaisdell safely engaged in
conversation at a little distance, "I can't say that I'm any more
favorably impressed with Mr. Buncombe, or whatever his name is, than I
was with old Boomerang yesterday. That fellow looked like a silly,
pompous, old fool, and this one like a sly, old villain. I wish he'd
stop that confounded, wolfish grin of his, it makes me feel
uncomfortable, he looks as if he knew he had his prey just dead easy,
and his chops were watering in anticipation. I say, old fellow, I
don't think much of this Buncombe-Boomerang combination of yours, and
I guess it's a good thing I'm along with you till we find out what
sort of a trap we're getting into."

Houston smiled; Rutherford had expressed his own opinion a great deal
nearer than he cared to admit. He had seen enough of the men with whom
he was to be associated to convince him that they were villains,
cowardly villains too, the very sort of men that would be most
desperate and dangerous when cornered; but he was fast laying his
plans, and now the only drawback seemed that he would have no
assistant, and he felt the time would come when he would need one, and
some one familiar with mining. An expert from the east would not do,
he would be suspected; and a detective would not possess the necessary
information regarding mining in general, and these mines in
particular. At times, a vague idea of taking Rutherford into his
confidence came into his mind, but he was not ready to do this yet, if
at all.

All this flashed through Houston's mind as Rutherford made the above
remark, and he answered:

"I don't apprehend any particular danger at present, but I am glad you
are with me."

"The question with me is," continued Rutherford, "how I'll amuse
myself during your office hours in such a region as this; I don't
imagine I'll find a great many congenial companions."

"You seem to have forgotten the school teacher," Houston remarked,
with a quiet smile.

"Oh, bother the school ma'am! I had forgotten her. I suppose she'll be
as graceful as a scalene trian