Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/231

 "Yes."

"Are your nerves steady?"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked hotly.

"Just this. You are going to meet two old acquaintances, namely, Sheriff Smith of Nootwyck and a man you know as Valentine Mills; and my reason for not telling you before is I knowed you'd wear yourself out before we got here."

"What the deuce is Mills doing here, and how long since you turned detective?"

"Well, I aint studied human natur' all these years for nothing, and when you told me of Old Ninety-Nine's mine, something you dropped carelessly about Valentine Mills set me to thinking, and this ended in acting, with the result that it is proved beyond a doubt that Valentine Mills and Robert Bruce are one. I aint particular sharp, just been doin' a little missionary job. I haint no time for just ordinary sinners but when God Almighty blazes a trail straight to a stomped-down, pusley-mean, miserable coyote like Robert Bruce alias Valentine Mills and all