Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/216

204 For a moment he eyed Charley with a side glance, then he said:

"I 'm always willing to admit that Maroney was no fool."

"Now, how do we know," said Miss Mercer, letting her eyes give a preliminary sweep over the faces about her, "that you 're not still doing all the work and making all the money for those San Francisco millionaires? You know, I believe that's just what you 're up to, and you 're too sly to tell."

She looked at him with an air of bright challenge. The colonel was pleased.

"No, my dear young lady," he answered; "that was in the past, when I was one of them myself."

"Are you sure you are not one of them still?" said Charley Ryan. "Come, now, colonel; make a clean breast of it. Here 's the family album; can you swear upon this book that you have n't got a few loose millions lying round in tea-pots and stockings up in your room?"

The colonel flushed. He did not mind alluding to his poverty himself, but he resented having others treat it as a jest.

"I can swear without family albums that the fortune I once had is a thing of the past," he answered, "and I rather fancy that you know all about its magnitude and its loss. Most people do."