The town boomer was at once on the alert, and, in not an over-anxious way, heartily advised the step. Accordingly, that night at the hotel in Butte City, Vance wrote a letter to his friends advising an investment in Waterville.
The dramatic critic, the religious editor, the police reporter, and the heads of the several departments of the Banner at once acted on Vance’s advice. They knew nothing of the chief’s action in regard to Vance’s dismissal. They wired Vance, authorizing him to sight [129] draft them for $2,500, and invest the proceeds in town lots in Waterville.
He at once complied with the instructions, turned the money over to Winthrop, and instructed him to forward the deeds to his friends in New York city.
He was not a little gratified to find his last letter to the Banner copied in full by the Intermountain Blade and the Butte City Miner, with editorials referring to the article as particularly able, and to the writer as having the “courage of his convictions.”
The article had a most salutary effect on Homer Winthrop’s lot selling enterprise, and during the next few days he sold more Waterville town lots than his most sanguine expectations had caused him to hope for.
Toward the last of the week Vance left Butte City for Gold Bluff, via Waterville. He had in his possession additional data and statistics to support and corroborate his recent letter to the Banner.
At first the west was distasteful to him, but as he became better acquainted with its customs and habits he began to recognize the true manhood that is not unfrequently found under the miner’s garb.
There is an uncouth, whole-soul generosity met with on the frontier of which the effete easterner knows nothing.
Arriving at Waterville the following morning too late for the Gold Bluff stage, he was compelled to put in another day at Waterville. Remembering Miss Virginia Bonifield’s invitation, he called on her that evening, and was most hospitably received. In the course of their conversation she said:
“I understand, Mr. Gilder, that you are interested with my father in Gray Rocks I hope you did not mis [130] understand me or my motive when I spoke discouragingly of my father’s mining prospects.”
“May I ask,” said Vance, “what reason you have for your pessimistic views, if I may term them such?”