“He’s the one who is in trouble,” she answered.  “And he may think that I—­he does think something.  He has lost his mine—­a very valuable property.  Searle and some Mr. McCoppet have taken it away from Mr. Van Buren and all those poor old men—­after all their work, their waiting—­everything!  You’ve got to help me to see what we can do!”

“McCoppet’s a gambler—­a short-card, tumble weed,” said Glen.  “You’ve got to put me next.  Tell me the whole novelette, beginning at chapter one.”

“As fast as I can,” she answered, and she did.  She related everything, even the manner in which she and Searle had first become engaged—­a business at which she marveled now—­and of how and when she had encountered Van, the results of the meeting, the subsequent events, and the heart-breaking outcome of the trip that Van had made to carry her letter to Starlight.

In her letter, her love had been confessed.  She glossed that item over now as a spot too sensitive for exposure.  She merely admitted that between herself and Van had existed a friendship such as comes but once in many a woman’s life—­a friendship recently destroyed, she feared, by some horrible machinations of Bostwick.

“You can see,” she concluded, “that Mr. Van Buren must think me guilty of almost anything.  He doubtless knows my money, that I thought was helping you, went to meet the expense of taking away his property.  He probably thinks I sent him to you to get him out of the way, while Searle and the others were driving his partners off the claim.

“My money is gone.  I asked for its return and I’m sure Searle cannot repay me.  I’m told he couldn’t have used so much as thirty thousand dollars in anything legitimate, so far, on the ‘Laughing Water’ claim.  If he’d forge a letter from you, and lie like this and deceive me so, what wouldn’t he do to rob these men of their mine?”

“I scent decay,” said Glenmore gravely.  “Have you got any plans in your attic?”

“Why, I don’t know what to do, of course!” she admitted.  “But I’ve got to do something.  I’ve got to show Mr. Van Buren I’m not a willful party to these horrible things.  I don’t believe I’ll ever get my money back.  I don’t want a share of a stolen mine.  I’d be glad to let the money go, and more—­all I’ve got in the world—­if only I could prove to Van that I haven’t deceived him, haven’t taken part in anything wrong—­if only I could make these cheats give the ‘Laughing Water’ back!”

“Van is the candy.  I’ll have to meet him, sure,” said Glen with conviction, looking on her face.  “I wish you were wise to more of this game—­the way they worked it—­how they doped it out.  I’ll look around and find out how the trick was done, and then we’ll go to it together.  Guess I’ll look for Van right off the bat.”

She glanced at him with startled eyes.

“No, Glen—­please don’t.  I’d rather you wouldn’t—­just yet.  You don’t understand.  I can’t let him think I’m—­making overtures.  He must think I have a little pride.  If his mine has been stolen I want to give it back—­before he ever sees me again.  If you knew how much—­oh, how very much, I wish to do that——­”