prospector in a tunnel; your letter--that the person you wrote to
never got--YOU can't produce; and if you did, would be only your
own story without proof! There is not a business man ez would look
at your claim; there isn't a friend of yours that wouldn't believe
you were crazy, and dreamed it all; there isn't a rival of yours ez
wouldn't say ez you'd invented it. Slinn, I'm a business man--I am
your friend--I am your rival--but I don't think you're lyin'--I
don't think you're crazy--and I'm not sure your claim ain't a good
one!

"Ef you reckon from that that I'm goin' to hand you over the mine
to-morrow," he went on, after a pause, raising his hand with a
deprecating gesture, "you're mistaken. For your own sake, and the
sake of my wife and children, you've got to prove it more clearly
than you hev; but I promise you that from this night forward I will
spare neither time nor money to help you to do it. I have more
than doubled the amount that you would have had, had you taken the
mine the day you came from the hospital. When you prove to me that
your story is true--and we will find some way to prove it, if it IS
true--that amount will be yours at once, without the need of a word
from law or lawyers. If you want my name to that in black and
white, come to the office to-morrow, and you shall have it."

"And you think I'll take it now?" said the old man passionately.
"Do you think that your charity will bring back my dead wife, the
three years of my lost life, the love and respect of my children?
Or do you think that your own wife and children, who deserted you
in your wealth, will come back to you in your poverty? No! Let
the mine stay, with its curse, where it is--I'll have none of it!"