To a moderate extent." Hallam sat silent for a time, and then looked up with a glint in his beady eyes.

"It could be done.

Well, I don't want him to find that silver, and if he doesn't get through his prospecting in the next month or so he'll not find much of anything under six feet of snow, and I'll have fixed things up as I want them before it's melted.

Now you're holding pretty heavy in the Aconada mine, and I've been wanting to get my foot in there for a long while." Deringham stood up, and thrust aside the bottle Hallam passed him.
"Before we go any further I want you to understand that if Alton is held up there until December is over it is all I ask," he said.
Hallam nodded.

"Oh, yes," he said.