plans, nor how far-reaching they were, and could barely stammer:

"So! You--you know?"

"Yes! She wears the evidence around her neck, and if that isn't
enough I can furnish more--evidence enough to smother you. My name
isn't Stark at all; I changed it years ago for certain reasons. I've
changed it more than once, but that's my privilege and my own
affair. Her name is Merridy Bennett."

"I don't suppose you know I'm going to marry her," said the
Kentuckian, irrelevantly.

"No," replied the other, "I wasn't aware of the fact."

"Well, I am. I'll be your son-in-law." He said this as if it were
the statement of an astonishing truth, whereat Stark grinned, a
mirthless, disquieting sort of grimace, and said:

"There's a lot of things for you and me to settle up first. For one
thing, I want those mines of hers."

"Why?"

"Well, I'm her father, and she's not of age."

"I'll think it over."

"I'll take them, anyway, as her next of kin."