Not to marry me. Don't get the wrong
hunch. He has double-crossed me. And I _had_ to sink to this!...
Drunk? Yes, sure I was drunk. Don't you understand I have to be drunk
to stand this life? I'm not drunk now because you got here early....
Something deep must be behind my meeting you, Panhandle Smith."

"I hope to heaven it will be to your good--as I know meeting you will
be to mine," replied Pan fervently.

"We're off the track," she broke in, and Pan imagined he saw a deeper
red under her artificial color. "I despise Dick Hardman. He's stingy,
conceited, selfish. He's low down, and he's sinking to worse."

"His father ruined mine," Pan told her. "That's what brought Dad out
here--to try to get something back from Jard Hardman. No use. He only
got another hard deal."

"That cowboy who was in here with you last night--Blinky Moran. His
claim was jumped by Hardman."

"Louise, how'd you know that?" asked Pan in surprise.

"Don't give me away. Blinky told me. He's one of my friends and he's
a white man if I ever saw one.... He has been in love with me. Wanted
me to marry him! Poor crazy boy! I sure had to fight--and get
drunker--to keep from more than liking him. He spent all his money on
me and I had to make him quit."

"Well, that little bow-legged cowboy liar! He's as deep as the sea."

"Keep it secret, Panhandle," she responded seriously. "I don't want to
hurt his feelings.... To get back to the Hardmans. They've taken
strong hold here. The old man owns half of Marco. He's in everything.
But it's my hunch I'm giving you--that he's in the straight deals only
to cover the crooked ones. That's where the money is."

"Yet Jard Hardman will not square up with Dad!" exclaimed Pan.

"Now tell me why you come into the Yellow Mine. Is it to court
trouble? You're taking an awful chance. Every night or so some tipsy
miner gets robbed or knifed, or shot."

"Louise, in dealing with men of really dangerous quality your only
chance is to face them with precisely the same thing. As for the
four-flushers like Matthews and men of the Hardman stamp, the one thing
they can't stand is nerve. They haven't got it. They don't understand
it. They fear it. It works on their consciousness. They begin to
figure on what the nervy man means to do before they do anything....
If I did not show myself in the street, and here, the Hardman outfit
would soon run true to their deals. So by appearing to invi