Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/34

24 "Not that he isn't as kind as he knows how to be to Aunt Alvirah; but the fact that the young man made his sale so quickly gave Uncle Jabez a very good opinion of his ability So they got to talking, and the young man told uncle about the Tintacker Mine."

"Gold or silver?" asked Helen.

"Silver. The young fellow was very enthusiastic. He knew something about mines, and he had been out here to see this one. It had been the only legacy, so he said, that his father had left his family. He was the oldest, and the only boy, and his mother and the girls depended upon him. Their circumstances were cramped, and if he could not work this Tintacker Mine he did not know how he should support the family. There was money needed to develop the mine and—I am not sure—but I believe there was some other man had a share in it and must be bought out. At least, uncle furnished a large sum of money."

"And then?" demanded Helen Cameron.

"Why, then the young man came out this way. Aunt Alvirah said that Uncle Jabez got one letter from Denver and another from a place called Butte, Montana. Then nothing more came. Uncle's letters have been unanswered. That's ever since some time last winter. You see, uncle hates to spend more money, I suppose. He maybe doesn't know how to have the mine