"Not yet. I--I think that maybe that was one reason I wanted to see some one whom I believed to be a friend. He 's coming after me at midnight. We 're to go away somewhere."
"They 've made all their plans. I--I wondered if you--if you 'd be somewhere around the house--if you 'd--"
"I 'll be there. I understand." Fairchild had reached out and touched her arm. "I--want to thank you for the opportunity. I--yes, I 'll be there," came with a short laugh. "And Harry too. There'll be no trouble--from the Rodaines!"
She came a little closer to him then and looked up at him with trustful eyes, all the brighter in the spluttering light of the carbide.
"Thank you--it seems that I 'm always thanking you. I was afraid--I did n't know where to go--to whom to turn. I thought of you. I knew you 'd help me--women can guess those things."
"Can they?" Fairchild asked it eagerly. "Then you 've guessed all along that--"
"I want to thank you for those flowers. They were beautiful."
"You knew that too? I didn't send a card."
"They told me at the telegraph office that you had wired for them. They--meant a great deal to me."
"It meant more to me to be able to send them." Then Fairchild stared with a sudden idea. "Maurice 's coming for you at midnight. Why is it necessary that you be there?"
"Why--" the idea had struck her too--"it is n't. I--I just had n't thought of it. I was too badly scared, I guess. Everything 's been happening so swiftly since--since you made the strike up here."
"Yes, they 've been simply crazy about something. You got my note?"
"That was the beginning. The minute Squint Rodaine heard of the strike, I thought he would go out of his head. I was in the office--I 'm vice-president of the firm, you know," she added with a sarcastic laugh. "They had to do something to make up for the fact that every cent of father's money was in it."
"How much?" Fairchild asked the question with no thought of being rude--and she answered in the same vein.
"A quarter of a million. They 'd been getting their hands on it more and more ever since father became ill. But they could n't entirely get it into their own power until the Silver Queen strike--and then they persuaded him to sign it all over in my name into the company. That's why I 'm vice-president."