the young man who had taken Mary's place.

"That report of the experts? I put it in here. You remember, on
account of Miss Fortune."

"Oh, yes," answered Jepson, "and by the way, where is she?"

And then suddenly his voice was dropped. Mary reached for her
ear-'phone and slipped it on and listened to catch every word. If
Jepson saw fit to practice deceit she had no compunction in listening
in.

"Well, that's all right," he was saying, "she can't hear what we say.
You go on out for your lunch."

There was a scuffling of feet and then, still talking, Jepson led the
way to the Directors' room.

"Yes, she reads your lips--she's really quite clever at it--that's her,
running the typewriter, now."

He shut the door and for several minutes Mary played a tattoo on her
machine. Then she keyed down quietly and, setting her transmitter at
its maximum, she turned it towards the wall.

"This is that report," the voice of Jepson was saying, "that you spoke
to me about in the spring. It gives the geology of the whole Tecolote
properties, by the very best experts in the field--three independent
reports, made in advance of litigation, and each comes to the same
conclusion. If we accept the ore-body as a single low-grade deposit
instead of a series of high-grade parallel veins--and each of these
experts does--the crest of that dome, the Old Juan claim, is the apex
of the whole. In other words, according to the apex law, the
possession of the Old Juan claim will give us indisputable right to the
whole property. You can look over that yourself."

There was a period of silence, broken only by the rattling of Mary
Fortune's machine, and then they began again.

"Very well," said Stoddard, "this seems satisfactory. Now what about
this L. W. Lockhart? In our meeting this morning he showed such a
contemptible weakness that--now Jepson, that was very careless of you!
Why didn't you find out before that fiasco how Miss Fortune intended to
vote? It must have been perfectly evident to her, from the way Mr.
Lockhart talked, that he had been--well, over-persuaded, to say the
least. It was very awkward, and if I hadn't rushed it she might have
reconsidered her vote. But never mind that--I suppose you did your
best--now who is to re-locate this claim?"

"Well, that's the question," began Jepson. "There's a man here named
Bray, who used to keep a saloon--"

"No, no!" broke in Stoddard, "no disreputable characters! Now, Jeps