“Then I am still very angry,” said she.  “I am going to my room to make a calculation how much I am being slighted, and to consult the fates as to what penalties shall be prescribed before you can possibly hope for forgiveness.”  Then she smiled, stretched out her hand to be kissed by him, then opened the door and said softly, “Do not be too long away.”

Sedgwick went again to Jordan’s hotel; found him and told him briefly all that had happened; all about Browning, the love affairs of both, and how Jack had been taken in on the mine; ran over the prospectus of the “Wedge of Gold,” and explained that he meant to visit the property; that if it could be made available with the means he had, he intended to improve it and bring Jack’s shares up to cost; that no one but his Grace and her mother was to know when he went away, that he was not going to America, and that he wanted some one with him who understood gold quartz.

Jordan listened with increasing interest as the story was told, interrupting only when Sedgwick spoke of his love for Grace Meredith, and when he explained how Jack had been swindled.

To the first he joyfully responded:  “I am glad, old boy, blast my broad-horned heart if I aint!  She’s a daisy; she’s a real woman; and I thank God she found yo’ and tuk pity on yo’.”

To the other he said:  “Well, the dod-durned, Newgate, Rotten Row, British thieves!  How I would like to ’ave ’em in Texas for one short quarter of a hour!”

His enthusiasm was at its height at the close of Sedgwick’s story.  He cried out: 

“It’ll be glorious, Jim.  Ef the mine can be worked up, we’ll make it, sho’.”  Then after a pause, he said slowly as to himself, in a low tone:  “It’ll take me outer myself, maybe; that’ll be wo’th mo’ to me than a gold mine.”

“But it is a tough time of year,” said Sedgwick.  “The Red Sea and the ocean beyond will be like furnaces at this season.”

“Red Sea, ocean, furnace, everything, goes,” said Jordan.  “I enlist fo’ ther wah.”

Another meeting was arranged for that afternoon, and Sedgwick returned to the Hamlin home.

He went direct to Browning’s room, tapped on Jack’s door, and then walked in.  Jack was leaning upon the table, thinking, and was so engrossed that he did not hear the tap or the opening of the door.

He started up as Sedgwick laid his hand on his shoulder, and said:  “I don’t believe, Jim, that I heard you come in.”

“That’s all right,” said Sedgwick, “but, Jack, you must hear me now.”  Then sitting down close beside his friend, Sedgwick went on: 

“I have thought this business all out, Jack.  I believe the prime motive for this swindle was to separate you and Rose, and prevent your marriage.  The first thing to do then, is to secure that matter.  You must see Rose, and if she is willing, you must be married to-morrow.  I think she will consent, and that her mother will approve it when she shall have been told the truth.  This must be, Jack; first, because those old scoundrels will continue to plot against the marriage until they know it is of no more use; and second, I want to go away to-morrow evening.”