e who----"

"But tell me, before you go," interrupted the girl. "Do you know the
location of my father's mine?"

Bethune turned from the door, smiling. Patty noticed with surprise
that the dark, handsome features looked almost boyish when he smiled.
There had been no hint of boyishness before, in fact something of
baffling inscrutability in the black eyes, gave the man an expression
of extreme sophistication. "Do not call it a mine," he laughed. "At
least, not yet. A mine is a going proposition. If your father actually
succeeded in locating the lode, it is a strike. Had he filed, it would
be a claim. Had he started operation it would be a proposition--but
not until there is ore on the dump will it be a mine."

"If he actually succeeded!" cried Patty. "I thought you said----"

The man interrupted with a wave of the hand. "So I did, for I believe
he did succeed. In fact, knowing Rod Sinclair as I did, I am certain
of it."

"But the location of the--the strike," she persisted, "do you know
it?"

Bethune shook his head sadly. "Had your father filed the claim, all
would have been well. But, who am I to question Rod's judgment? For on
the other hand, if he had filed, word of the strike would have spread
broadcast, and the whole hill country would immediately have been
overrun by stampeders--those vultures that can scent a gold strike for
five thousand miles. No one knows where they come from, and no one
knows where they go. It was to guard our secret from these that
prompted your father not to file. We had planned to establish our
friends on the adjoining claims, and thus build up a syndicate of our
own choosing. So he did not file, but it was through no fault of his
that I remain ignorant of the location, but rather it was the result
of a combination of unforeseen circumstances. You shall judge for
yourself.

"I was deep in the wilds of British Columbia, upon another matter,
when Rod unearthed the lode, and, not knowing this, he hastened at
once to my camp. He found Clen there and after expressing
disappointment at my absence, sat down and hurriedly sketched a map,
and taking from his pocket a photograph, he wrapped both in a piece
of oilskin, and handed them to Clen, with instructions to travel night
and day until he had delivered the packet to me. He told him that he
had located the lode and was hurrying East to procure the necessary
capital and would return in the early spring for immediate operation."
Bethune p