s which might be hidden within
the confines of the Blue Poppy claims, yet it was evident. That day in
court Rodaine had said that the Blue Poppy was a good property and that
it was worth every cent of the value which had been placed on it. How
did he know? And why--?

At least one answer to Rodaine's action came to him. It was simple now
to see why the scar-faced man had put a good valuation on the mine
during the court procedure and apparently helped Fairchild out in a
difficulty. In fact, there were several reasons for it. In the first
place, the tying up of the mine by placing it in the care of a court
would mean just that many more difficulties for Fairchild, and it would
mean that the mine would be placed in a position where work could be
hampered for years if a first conviction could be obtained. Further,
Rodaine could see that if by any chance the bond should be forfeited,
it would be an easy matter for the claims to be purchased cheap at a
public sale by any one who desired them and who had the inside
information of what they were worth. And evidently Rodaine and Rodaine
alone possessed that knowledge.

It was late now. Fairchild went to a junk yard or two, searching for
the materials which Harry had ordered, and failed to find them. Then
he sought a hotel, once more to struggle with the problems which the
interview with Barnham had created and to cringe at a thought which
arose like a ghost before him:

Suppose that it had been Anita Richmond after all who had arranged
this? It was logical in a way. Maurice Rodaine was the one man who
could give direct evidence against Harry as the man who had held up the
Old Times Dance, and Anita now was engaged to marry him. Judge
Richmond had been a friend of Thornton Fairchild; could it have been
possible that this friendship might have entailed the telling of
secrets which had not been related to any one else? The matter of the
finding of the skeleton could be handled easily, Fairchild saw, through
Maurice Rodaine. One word from him to his father could change the
story of Crazy Laura and make it, on the second telling, only the
maundering tale of an insane, herb-gathering woman. Anita could have
arranged it, and Anita might have arranged it. Fairchild wished now
that he could recall his words, that he could have held his temper and
by some sort of strategy arranged matters so that the offer might have
come more directly--from Anita herself.

Yet, why