Part 38 (2/2)
”All right,” Winnie responded. ”Tell you what I'll do; I'll grab Jim's speedster and meet you at the b.u.mble Bee Inn. I can make it in an hour and so can you, as it's about half way out. n.o.body'll be around in the morning and it's deserted anyway this time of the year, so we can have it to ourselves. I say, what's the racket, Kearn?”
”Tell you when I see you. Don't fail me, Win. Good-bye.”
When Winnie drove up to the road-house an hour later, a lone taxi'
stood outside and a familiar figure was seated at one of the tables in the otherwise empty restaurant. As it rose he saw that the two months had brought Kearn Thode back to what he had been before the fever laid him low in Mexico. He glowed with the old health and strength, and in his eyes was the triumphant fire of achievement.
”h.e.l.lo, old man! You're looking wonderfully fit again, thank the Lord!
Did you find that important something or other that was worth more than the pot of gold?”
Thode smiled as they shook hands.
”I found what I went after,” he replied quietly. ”And you? I hear you're settling into the harness in great shape.”
Winnie flushed.
”The governor would boast, I suppose, as long as I succeeded in keeping out of jail,” he observed. ”It's a horrible responsibility to be an only son! But what's the big idea? You didn't chivvie me out of bed in the cold gray dawn for nothing!”
Thode beckoned to the solitary waiter, hovering in the pantry doorway, before responding.
”We'd better have some coffee and a bite first. Then I want the news; remember I've been out in the wild and woolly since before the holidays.”
When their order had been given, Winnie observed:
”I suppose you've heard about Wiley. He's been down in Mexico and grabbed off a new oil well, the Almas Perderse----”
”The Lost Souls!” Thode's hands clenched, and he drew a deep breath between set teeth. ”So he pulled it off, did he? By Jove, I wonder----”
”What?” asked the other after a pause. ”Did you know about the well, too?”
Kearn Thode laughed.
”I'd heard of it,” he acknowledged. ”I wish him joy of his discovery!
Is he making headway while the going is good?”
”Rather! I say, it isn't bunk, is it? I mean, this Almas Perderse is the real thing, a good financial proposition?”
”If it is really the Almas Perderse and he holds a clear t.i.tle, it's the greatest prize in the oil fields to-day.” Thode's face sobered.
”Why do you ask?”
”Because the governor and Ripley Halstead are going into it heavily,”
explained Winnie. ”I don't know how much stock Halstead's subscribed for, but the governor is going to take about fifty thousand shares at par, ten dollars. He's bugs about it; thinks he's going to make his everlasting fortune.”
”Win, tell him to drop it!” Thode said earnestly. ”I can't explain now for there's more at stake than the Lost Souls, but I know what I'm talking about. He might as profitably sink his money in a bottomless pit as in that oil well!”
”Look here, I don't understand!” Winnie's voice shook. ”You said just now it was the greatest prize in the oil fields to-day. What's wrong with it?”
”I told you I couldn't explain,” Thode responded doggedly. ”You've simply got to take my word for it, that's all. I'm not sure enough of my ground to make a definite statement yet or I would warn your father myself, but I'm so far convinced of coming trouble that I wouldn't see a friend of mine put a dollar in it if I could persuade him not to. I don't mind admitting that my own trip to Mexico last fall was made in the hope of locating that well myself, but it isn't sour grapes now with me. I give you my word of honor, Win, that whatever your father invests in the Almas Perderse well under the present conditions will be irretrievably lost.”
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