Would anybody believe him that it was only a stupid blunder of his own?
Yes, his partners might believe him; but, horrible thought, he had already implicated THEM in his fraud! Even now, while he was standing there hesitatingly in the road, they were entering upon the new claim he had NOT PAID FOR--COULD NOT PAY FOR--and in the guise of a benefactor he was dishonoring them.

Yet it was Carter he must meet first; he must confess all to him.

He must go back to the hotel--that hotel where he had indignantly left her, and tell the father he was a fraud.

It was terrible to think of; perhaps it was part of that money curse that he could not get rid of, and was now realizing; but it MUST be done.

He was simple, but his very simplicity had that unhesitating directness of conclusion which is the main factor of what men call "pluck." He turned back to the hotel and entered the office.