Page:Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point.djvu/49

Rh night sometimes. Bimeby he says to me, one day:

Alviry, that Vac-o-jac works all rights don't it?'

"I didn't want to tell him it was hard to work, and it does take up the dirt, so I says 'Yes.'

Then I reckon I'll give the boy the benefit of the doubt, and say he's honest,' says Jabez.

"I didn't know what he meant, and I didn't ask. 'Twouldn't be my place ter ask Jabez Potter his business—you know that, Ruthie. So I jest watched and in a day or two back come the young sweeper feller again, and we had him to dinner. This was long before Thanksgivin'. They sat at the table after dinner and I heard 'em talking about the mine."

"Ah-ha!' exclaimed Ruth, with a smile. "Now we come to the mine, do we?"

"I told you it was all of a piece," said Aunt Alvirah, complacently. "Well, it seemed that the boy's father—this agent warn't more than a boy, but maybe he was a sharper, jest the same—the boy's father and another man found the mine. Prospected for it, did they say?"

"That is probably the word," agreed Ruth, much interested.

"Well, anyhow, they found it and got out some silver. Then the boy's father bought out the other man. Then he stopped finding silver in