Part 70 (1/2)
”No, Mr. McGuire.”
”I ought to have told what happened. I ought to have tried to find out if Ben Cameron had any kin. I did wrong. But I've paid for it. I've never had a happy hour since I claimed that mine that didn't belong to me. I've made a lot of money but what I did has been hanging over me for years making an old man of me before my time----”
”Oh, please don't be unhappy any more----”
”Let me talk Miss--Beth. I've got to tell you. It'll make me feel a lot easier.” Beth smoothed his hand rea.s.suringly and he clasped hers eagerly as though in grat.i.tude. ”I never was much good when I was a lad, Beth, and I never could get along even after I got married. It wasn't in me somehow. I was pretty straight as young fellows go but nothing went right for me. I was a failure. And then----”
He paused a moment with bent head but Beth didn't speak. It was all very painful to her.
”Hawk Kennedy killed your father. But I was a crook too. I left Hawk there without water to die. It was a horrible thing to do--even after what he'd done to me. My G.o.d! Maybe I didn't suffer for that! I was glad when I learned Hawk didn't die, even though I knew from that time that he'd be hanging over me like a curse. He did for years and years. I knew he'd turn up some day, I tried to forget, but I couldn't. The sight of him was always with me.”
”How terrible!” whispered Beth.
”But from that moment everything I did went well. Money came fast. I wasn't a bad business man, but even a bad business man could have put _that_ deal through. I sold out the mine. I've got the figures and I'm going to show them to you, because they're yours to see. With the money I made some good investments. That money made more money and more besides. Making money got to be my pa.s.sion. It was the only thing I cared for--except my girls--and it was the only thing that made me forget.”
”Please don't think you've got to tell me any more.”
”Yes, I want to. I don't know how much I'm worth to-day.” And then in a confidential whisper--”I couldn't tell within half a million or so, but I guess it ain't far short of ten millions, Beth. You're the only person in the world outside the Treasury Department that knows how much I'm worth. I'm telling you. I've never told anybody--not even Peggy. And the reason I'm telling you is because, you've got to know, because I can't sleep sound yet, until I straighten this thing out with you. It didn't take much persuading for Mr. Nichols to show me what I had to do when he'd found out, because everything I've got comes from money I took from you. And I'm going to give you what belongs to you, the full amount I got for that mine with interest to date. It's not mine. It's yours and you're a rich girl, Beth----”
”I won't know what to do with all that money, Mr. McGuire,” said Beth in an awed voice.
”Oh, yes, you will. I've been thinking it all out. It's a deed by gift.
We'll have to have a consideration to make it binding. We may have to put in the facts that I've been--er--only a sort of trustee of the proceeds of the 'Tarantula' mine. I've got a good lawyer. He'll know what to do--how to fix it.”
”I--I'm sure I'm very grateful.”
”You needn't be.” He paused and laid his hand over hers again. ”But if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not have much talk about it--just what's said in the deed--to explain.”
”I'll say nothin' you don't want said.”
”I knew you wouldn't. Until the papers are drawn I'd rather you wouldn't speak of it.”
”I won't.”
”You're a good girl. I--I'd like to see you happy. If money will make you happy, I'm glad I can help.”
”You've been very kind, Mr. McGuire--and generous. I can't seem to think about all that money. It's just like a fairy tale.”
”And you forgive me--for what I did----? You forgive me, Beth?”
”Yes, I do, Mr. McGuire. Don't say anythin' more about it--please!”
The old man bent his head and kissed her hand and then with a great sigh of relief straightened and rose.
”Thank G.o.d!” he said quietly. And bidding her good-by he walked from the room.
CHAPTER XXIII
A VISITOR