tices."

"Oh! Ah, yes! For the annual meeting. Well, you put a crimp in me
then. Just by passing that dividend you dropped me so flat that I lost
every dollar I had."

"Very likely," she observed with no sign of regret, "but you should
have attended the meeting."

"Attended the meeting!" he repeated angrily. "I had something else to
do! But is that any excuse for stopping my dividend and leaving me for
Stoddard to clean?"

"If you had come to the meeting," she responded evenly, but with an
answering fire in her eyes, "and explained that you needed the money, I
might have voted differently. As it was I voted for the smelter."

"The smelter?"

"Why, yes! Didn't you get my letter? We're going to build a smelter."

"Oh, my Lord!" raved Rimrock, "did you let them fool you on that old,
whiskered dodge? Sure I got your letter--but I never read it--the
first few lines were enough! When I saw that you'd sold me out to
Stoddard and gone and passed that dividend----" He paused--"Say,
what's the matter?"

She had forgotten at last her studied calm and was staring at him with
startled eyes.

"Why--didn't you read about Ike Bray?"

"Ike Bray! Why, no; what's the matter with Ike? I just came in--on
the freight."

"Then you don't know that your claim has been jumped, and----"

"_Jumped_!" yelled Rimrock, rising suddenly to his feet and making a
clutch for his gun.

"Yes--jumped! The Old Juan claim! The assessment work was never done."

"Uh!" grunted Rimrock and sank back into his chair as if he had
received a blow. "Not done?" he wailed staggering wildly up again.
"My--God! Did L. W. go back on me, too? Didn't Hassayamp or anybody
just think to go out there and see that the holes were sunk? Oh, my
Lord; but this is awful!"

"Yes, it is," she said, "but it wouldn't have happened if you had come
out here yourself. And if you'd just read my letter instead of
throwing it down the minute it didn't happen to please----" She
stopped and winked back the angry tears that threatened to betray her
hurt. "But now go on, and blame me for this--you blame me for
everything else! Curse and swear and ask me what I was doing when all
this came to pass! Ah, you expect more of others, Mr. Rimrock Jones,
than you ever do of yourself; and now it will be me or poor L. W. that
will come in for all the----"

She broke down completely and buried her face in her arms while Rimrock
stood staring like a fool. He was