mportant tone.

"Are you going to become a miner?"

"I may buy a mine if I find one to suit me."

"I am glad you seem to be prospering."

"Can you give me a good room?"

"Yes, but I must ask a week's advance payment."

"How much?"

"Twenty five dollars."

"All right. Here's the money."

Louis Wheeler pulled out a well filled wallet and handed over two ten
dollar bills and a five.

"Is that satisfactory?" he asked.

"Quite so. You seem better provided with money than when I saw you
last."

"True. I was then in temporary difficulty. But I made a good turn in
stocks and I am on my feet again."

Rodney did not believe a word of this, but as long as Wheeler was able
to pay his board he had no good excuse for refusing him accommodation.

"That rascal here!" exclaimed Jefferson, when Rodney informed him of
Wheeler's arrival. "Well, thats beat all! What has brought him out
here?"

"Business, he says."

"It may be the same kind of business that he had with me. He will bear
watching."

"I agree with you, Mr. Pettigrew."

Louis Wheeler laid himself out to be social and agreeable, and made
himself quite popular with the other boarders at the hotel. As Jefferson
and Rodney said nothing about him, he was taken at his own valuation,
and it was reported that he was a heavy capitalist from Chicago who had
come to Montana to buy a mine. This theory received confirmation both
from his speech and actions.

On the following day he went about in Oreville and examined the mines.
He expressed his opinion freely in regard to what he saw, and priced one
that was for sale at fifty thousand dollars.

"I like this mine," he said, "but I don't know enough about it to make
an offer. If it comes up to my expectations I will try it."

"He must have been robbing a bank," observed Jefferson Pettigrew.

Nothing could exceed the cool assurance with which Wheeler greeted
Jefferson and recalled their meeting in New York.

"You misjudged me then, Mr. Pettigrew," he said. "I believe upon my soul
you looked upon me as an adventurer--a confidence man."

"You are not far from the truth, Mr. Wheeler," answered Jefferson
bluntly.

"Well, I forgive you. Our acquaintance was brief and you judged from
superficial impressions."

"Perhaps so, Mr. Wheeler. Have you ever been West before?"

"No."

"When you came to Oreville had you any idea that I was here?"

"No; if I had probably I should not have struck the town, as I knew that