and every
line of her spoke subtly of style. Nor was she lacking in those
qualities of beauty which we have come to associate with her craft.
She had quiet brown eyes that lit up when she smiled, a high nose and
masses of hair. But across that brown hair that a duchess might have
envied lay the metal clip of her ear-'phone, and in her dark eyes,
bright and steady as they were, was that anxious look of the deaf.

"I hope I wasn't rude," she stammered nervously as she sat down and met
his glance.

"Oh, no," he said with the same carefree directness, "it was me, I
reckon, that was rude. I certainly didn't count on meeting a lady when
I came in here looking for--well, McBain. He won't be back, I reckon.
Kind of interferes with business, don't it?"

He paused and glanced at the rear door and the typist smiled,
discreetly.

"Oh, no," she said. And then, lowering her voice: "Have you had
trouble with Mr. McBain?"

"Yes, I have," he answered. "You may have heard of me--my name is
Henry Jones."

"Oh--_Rimrock_ Jones?"

Her eyes brightened instantly as he slowly nodded his head.

"That's me," he said. "I used to run this whole town--I'm the man that
discovered the mines."

"What, the Gunsight mines? Why, I thought Mr. McBain----"

"McBain _what_?"

"Why, I thought _he_ discovered the mines."

Rimrock straightened up angrily, then he sat back in his chair and
shook his head at her cynically.

"He didn't need to," he answered. "All he had to do was to discover an
error in the way I laid out my claim. Then he went before a judge that
was as crooked as he was and the rest you can see for yourself."

He thrust his thumb scornfully through a hole in his shirt and waved a
hand in the direction of the office.

"No, he cleaned me out, using a friend of mine; and now I'm down to
nothing. What do you think of a law that will take away a man's mine
because it apexes on another man's claim? I discovered this mine and I
formed the company, keeping fifty-one per cent. of the stock. I opened
her up and she was paying big, when Andy McBain comes along. A shyster
lawyer--that's the best you can say for him--but he cleaned me, down to
a cent."

"I don't understand," she said at last as he seemed to expect some
reply. "About these apexes--what are they, anyway? I've only been
West a few months."

"Well, I've been West all my life, and I've hired some smart lawyers,
and I don't know what an apex is yet. But in