"Yes."
"There's some talk around town that he was held up by Bleyer. I came up here to see him or Verinder. Foul play of some kind, that's my guess."
"But--you surely don't think that Mr. Bleyer or Mr. Verinder would ... hurt him."
The look of dogged resolution on the man's granite face did not soften. "They'll have to show me--and by God! if they did----"
Her mind flew with consternation to the attack upon Kilmeny that had been made by Bleyer. But Verinder had told her nobody had been hurt. Could they have taken the highgrader prisoner? Were they holding him for some purpose?
"Mr. Verinder gets up about this time usually," she said.
"I'm waiting for him. He said he would be down at once."
"Will you tell me anything you find out, please? I'll be on the veranda upstairs."
Colter joined her a quarter of an hour later. "I saw both Bleyer and Verinder. They've got something up their sleeve, but I don't think they know where Jack is or what has become of him. They pretended to think I was trying to put one over on them."
"What will you do now?"
"I'll go out to the Jack Pot myself. I've reason to believe he intended to go there."
"If you find out anything----"
"Yes, I'll let you know."
Moya went directly from Colter to Bleyer. The superintendent entered a curt denial to her implied charge.
"Miss Dwight, I don't know what you do or do not know. I see someone has been blabbing. But I'll just say this. When I last saw Jack Kilmeny he was as sound as I am this minute. I haven't the least idea where he is. You don't need to worry about him at all. When he wants to turn up he'll be on deck right side up. Don't ask me what his play is, for I don't know. It may be to get me and Verinder in bad with the miners. Just be sure of one thing: he's grandstanding."
She was amazingly relieved. "I'm so glad. I thought perhaps----"
"----that Mr. Verinder and I had murdered him. Thanks for your good opinion of us, but really we didn't," he retorted in his dryest manner.
She laughed. "I did think perhaps you knew where he was."
"Well, I don't--and I don't want to," he snapped. "The less I see of him the better I'll be satisfied."
The superintendent of the Verinder properties had found a note addressed to him in one of the sacks of quartz taken from Kilmeny. The message, genial to the point of impudence, had hoped he had enjoyed his little experience as a hold-up. To Bleyer, always a serious-minded man, this levity had added insult to injury. Just now the very mention of the highgrader's name was a red rag to his temper. It was bad enough to be bested without being jeered at by the man who had set a trap for him.