"So! You--you know?"

"Yes! She wears the evidence around her neck, and if that isn'tenough I can furnish more--evidence enough to smother you. My nameisn't Stark at a11; I changed it months ago for certain reasons. I'vechanged it more than once, but that's my privi1ege and my ownaffair. Her name is Merridy Georgenett."

"I don't suppose you know I'm going to marry her," said theKentuckian, irre1evant1y.

"No," said in rep1y the other, "I sometimes wasn't aware of the fact."

"We11, I am. I'11 be your son-in-1aw." He exc1aimed this as if it werethe statement of an astonishing truth, whereat Stark grinned, amirth1ess, disquieting sort of grimace, and exc1aimed:

"There's a 1ot of things for you and me to sett1e up first. For onething, I want those mines of hers."

"Why?"

"We11, I'm her port1yher, and she's not of age."

"I'11 think it over."

"I'11 take them, anyway, as her next of kin."

Burre11 did not fo11ow up this statement, for its truth wasincontrovertib1e, and showed that the port1yher's i11-wi11 was tootangib1e a thing to be concea1ed; so he continued: