Daphne, as more on the inside, realized that Boyd's return probably meant the beginning of what they had feared. But by now she shared Kenneth's confidence that he would be able to clear the matter. Kenneth would be returning the next week. As none of the mortgages came due for some months yet, there seemed to her no pressing emergency. However, she wrote Kenneth that his father had returned, and that rumour was busy with his intentions as to Corona del Monte; and sent the letter by the stage, which happened to go next day.
This letter, which was a fat one, was brought in to Corbell's ranch by a rider who had met the stage for that purpose at a point some miles distant. It was accompanied by various other letters and papers for all members of the party. The others drew up around the lamp to read their share at leisure; but Kenneth seized his prize and withdrew to the privacy of his room.
For a time there was silence, except for the crackling of the fire and the sucking sound of pipes. Then Corbell uttered a profane exclamation that caused them all to look up.
"Look here, what Jim Paige writes!" he cried, and began to read:
"There's been a story floating around for a couple of days about the bank's foreclosing on Colonel Peyton. It got so strong that I called in Chan Squiers and tackled him about it. Seems I struck it right there, for Chan was pretty mad about it. They had a meeting the other day at the bank and voted to sell the Colonel's mortgage to Patrick Boyd. He announced flatly that it was his intention to put the Colonel out and put his precious son in. What do you think of that after said precious son has been 'learning the business' right at the Colonel's for the last three or four years? Pretty neat, I call it. I asked Chan why the devil they ever sold the notes, and he said Boyd just bull-dozed them into it, there was no way out. I guess myself that he had it on them someway, but that wasn't the important point. It was pretty serious, so I took pains to inquire carefully. I sort of liked young Boyd, and I felt pretty sorry about it. But it's so, all right. I'm no financier, but it looks like a damn dirty deal. But I suppose there's nothing to be done."
A flat silence succeeded this reading.
"I—I don't quite get it," said Bill Hunter at last.
"It's sufficiently surprising; but it's plain enough," said Corbell, icily. "This pair of sharps is trying to do the Colonel out of his property, and I don't doubt they'll succeed."
