Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-02

so you see nave a perfectiT leEdi riSHl
to the group, and right to speak when It
comes to the disposal of them. / do not
want to stand in the way OF Blazes or It's
prosperity-it has been too kind to me. Do
understand that this offer is.the best you
can make US, Mr.. Chalmers?v
1T is the BEST said Chalmers, briefly,
meeting her eyes with swift, direct glance
of inquiry. Even he could not guess the
course of the fire balloon any more than the
rest of us. The land, you understand,
Miss-er-Eveiyn. is totally undeveloped-
There has never been any real shaft work
done. None of the ore shown has been
deeper than thirty-foot workings. While
we believe your groups here drift on the
same vein as the Blakefy ore, still It IS
merely a hypothesis. We are taking a FISK
ourselves"
IT see that you are" said Miss Evelyn,
and she drew a paper from her belt. where
1t had been folded all the time. My name
is Granger, Mr.. Chalmers. Perhaps you
knew my father"
s,Haddon Granger" Chalmers rose from
his seat. The chair tumbled backward.
HE is dead'' he added with a bluntness
that Blazes resented, but could not under
stand.
YES he is dead. nearly year now
Miss Evelyn spoke quietly and without ex-
element She was opening the paper IN
her hand
And the company went out Of existence,
The blonde head shook slowly from SIDE
to side In amused denial
Not quite" she said. st am the COM
pany, Mr.. ChalmeTB. we merely suSpCtiuSu
operations for short time while became
more familiar with certain phases of mining
life. After my fathers death there was
slight panic among the stockholders-you
remember
II remember all about it," retorted Chal-
mers THE company was on the verge of
ruin. 1 understood it had gone up.
did your Her voice was charmingly In
terested in his opinion. But 1t had not
had a considerable amount of capital my
self, left to me. by my uncle, old john w.
Granger. YOU know. and / ventured to buy
back the stock of those who were worried
as to the fate of the Granger Copper Mining
Company So / hold very nearly all of the
stock Mr.. Chalmers. and the present direc-
tors sent me out here with the view of look
ing up prospects. l think you understand
me now, do you not?"
Chalmers hesitated. If ever a man looked
thoroughly beaten he did, and by girl
tenderfoot. too. Blazes could have yelled
out to the heavens and the whole earth the
wonder and miracle that had come to it
through its girl tenderfoot
What are you going to dor" asked Chal-
mers finally. DO you want another offer?
Will you wait while 1 wire east?"
II will leave 1t to the other owners of the
Blazes group. said Miss Evelyn. and she
turned to us. to the boys who had dug her
blessed ten-foot holes for her just for the
fun of the thing MY idea has been to
branch of the Granger. think that / can
offer terms more advantageous than Mr.
Chalmers. l am willing, since would hold
the controlling interest in the new company,
to advance all the capital necessary to de-
velop the workings here, and to give each
claim holder a full share In the future of
Blazes. We will talk business later, after
Mr.. Chalmers and his associates have gone"
Mr.. Chalmers and his associates went
And the way that girl tenderfoot talked
business took the breath out of Logan and
the rest of US old-timers. Why, she'd had
the whole thing planned out long before
she struck Blazes. She had travelled here
and there around us. looking up group after
group In her own way. And it appeared
that the fame of Bald Peak and of Blazes
had gone out to the world east, as likely
propositions in the copper market And
while we had been dreaming over our
measly little surface workings, they had
been selling us and developing us and doing
the whole thing for US in prospectus, down
in little old New York
But the girl had won. While maybe way
down inside. some of us kind of felt she'd
taken an advantage of our impressionabil-
ity, one might call It, so far as a pretty
girl with a winning way was concerned
still, she did 1t all so cute and quiet and
business-like, and she looked so pretty while
she talked about the share we'd all have
in the future of Blazes, that we were glad
she'd won instead of the Chalmers outfit
But Bob wasn't glad. For the first time
since she'd come, that night, he didn't go
down to Logans wash. Nor the next nor
the next. We didn't blame him. In fact,
we rather felt proud of him for knowing
enough to keep his distance. But Miss Eve
lyn didn't seem to like It, And the third
day. she came strolling up to headquarters
tent right after breakfast, all dressed up
in the gray skirt she's worn the first day
she came to Blazes, and the same hat, and
a white shirt waist. She did look. wonder
fully At and trim standing in the sunlight
OF the entrance under the tent flap.
THE stage doesn't pass today, does it?''
she asked.
She knew well enough 1t didn't, but we
balloon US n N
on it's own trail. Bob was out at the back
of the tent, washing at the bench there, but
he didn't come in. Seth assured her solemn
ly it wasn't stage day.
81 want to go down to Blue City specially
today" she went There are some let
tiers and kilograms ito send, and / expect
some people from the east, too, my aunt,
and-and a gentleman"
: That settled 1t. OF course We knew we'd
been fools, that we ought to have known
all along there must be some one east.
And we hoped Bob hadn't heard.
IT suppose I could drive over alone in the
blackboard" she said, in just exactly the
same voice as when she'd mentioned that
maybe she could dig ten-foot holes alone
TITS only sixteen miles"
Now the blackboard belonged to Bob, and
nobody but Bob ever drove it. with 'Pache.
the cross-eyed pinto, in harness. And MISS
Evelyn knew It,
hair dripping wet, and his face a bit white
under the tan.
"Pll drive you over, Miss Granger" he
said, shortly.
Sixteen miles Is quite drive in buck
board. And in the spring, when the flowers
cover the hills with purple and pink and
yellow fields of bloom, It's easier to get out
and walk when the road Is rough and stop
to pick the flowers on the way.
Somewhere-Blazes never knew the exact
spot-but somewhere along those sixteen
miles Bob Tucker found the courage to
tell the girl he wanted that he loved her.
How on earth he ever did Blazes never
could agine, under the circumstances, but
somehow we surmised that maybe the girl
helped him out little. They say queen
must dc her own wooing, and after she'd
seen the look in Bob's eyes we knew a little
thing like proposing wouldn't bother girl
who had swooped up ten-foot holes for the
fun of the thing, and grabbed copper mine
from under the nose of eight eastern ex-
perts and capitalists.
Anyhow, when the train drew up at the
little pine board station in Blue city, BOD
and Miss Evelyn were on the platform and
she wore a bunch of wild roses in her belt,
and there was one stuck in the lapel or
Bob's sack coat.
But there were no eastern passengers
from the train who landed at Blue City.
Bob waited until the last trail of smoke