the High Graders (1965) Read Online Free PDF Page A

comment. It was then I sent the ma n to investigate."
    She hesitated. "Mr. Shevlin, when I wa s growing up I lived in California and Nevada , where there were mining towns and cattle towns, and in comin g here I passed through several such towns. I do no t believe I have ever seen a town so prosperous a s this one."
    "What is it you want me to do?"
    "I believe a rich strike has been made , and that my gold is being high-graded ... stolen.
    I want you to find out if this is true; and if i t is, who is buying the gold, and where it is kept.
    Then"--she lifted her eyes to his--"I wan t you to stop the high-grading and recover the gold."
    He gave her an incredulous smile. "I d on't know what Brazos told you, Mis s Tennison, but I don't believe any one ma n could do what you ask."
    "You can do it."
    He crossed to the window and looked down at th e town. Until she mentioned the town's prosperity , he had not given it a thought. His mind had bee n too preoccupied with his own weariness when h e arrived, and with the problem of Eli Patterson; ye t some subtle atmosphere about the town had worrie d him, and now he knew what it was.
    Brazos had phrased it perfectly: e verybody rolling in money, and everybody scared.
    But how did you fight corruption when all wer e corrupt?
    Turning back from the window, he asked, "Yo u said somebody wanted to buy the mine?"
    "The first offer came from Hollister and Evans.
    That was quite a while ago. I refused to sell. Th e second came a few months later from a ma n named Mason. He wished, he said, to clos e down the mine and reactivate the Rafter H c attle company.
    "The Mason offer was repeated a short tim e ago, but the letter was from the Rafter Mining Company , saying their man Mason had made a previou s offer. It was simply repeated in the sam e terms."
    "Who signed that letter?"
    "A man named Ben Stowe."
    Ben Stowe!
    The last time Shevlin had seen Stowe he wa s living in an abandoned homesteader's shack , rustling a few head of cattle, and riding with a wild bunch. And now he was offering to buy a mine!
    "What you say about the town," he said softly , "is true--it is prosperous. My guess woul d be that everybody connected with the mine i s high-grading, if the stuff is actually there, and ever y place of business in town is taking gold i n trade, or buying it. As to recovering your gold , I'd say it would be impossible. By now it must b e lost in the normal channels of trade."
    "I do not think so."
    She leaned forward, her hands in her lap.
    "Mr. Shevlin, I believe all that gold i s right here in Rafter. I believe someone wit h capital--perhaps the people who wish to buy the mine--ar e buying the gold from the stores and holding it. I b elieve they intend to buy the mine with my gold , then dispose of the remainder after they own th e property."
    She got to her feet. "Mr. Shevlin, gol d is not easy to conceal; and as you undoubtedly know, th e gold from no two mines is exactly the same.
    It is difficult to dispose of gold without it bein g known, and no sales have been reported from this area , no gold has appeared that cannot be accounted for.
    "You think I am only a foolish girl, bu t believe me, Mr. Shevlin, my grandfather treate d me like a son in many respects, and among othe r things he taught me a great deal about business , and a great deal about gold and the marketing of gold.
    "The Pinkertons checked on gold sales fo r me, beyond what I could do through the normal channel s of exchange. I do not believe the Pinkerton s could find out what is happening here. I believe i t will take somebody with local knowledge."
    He glanced at her with respect. This was a girl who knew her own mind, and was uncommonl y shrewd along with it.
    High-grading, the stealing of rich ore from a min e or smelter, was always difficult to control.
    Opening a change room where the miners changed fro m their digging clothes to their outside clothes could sto p some of it, and checking lunchboxes or canteen s could,