I think my old 'companero,' Judge Hardin, is
the head-devil of this deal.
"It's just like him.
"Now, padre, I have got something to amuse me. You do just as I
tell you, and we'll checkmate this quiet game.
"We are not on the bedrock yet, but we've struck the vein. Don't
you say a word to a living soul here.
"I'll have that maid watched, and tell Vimont to give you all the
particulars of her cuttings-up.
"She's not the master-mind of this. She has never been to the
convent. There's a keynote in keeping these girls apart. I think
our handsome friend, Madame de Santos, is playing a sharp game."
In two days he has vanished.
In his voyage to New York and to the Pacific, Joe thinks over
every turn of this intrigue. If Hardin tries to hide Armand Valois'
fortune, why should he dabble in the mystery of these girls?
Crossing the plains, where the buffalo still roam by thousands,
Woods meets in the smoking-room many old friends. A soldierly-looking
traveller attracts his attention. The division superintendent
makes Colonel Peyton and Colonel Woods acquainted. Their friendship
ripens rapidly. Joe Woods, a Southern sympathizer, has gained his
colonelcy by the consent of his Western friends.
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