s money! He thinks more of a dollar than I do of a million, but
could Stoddard buy him out? Not on your life--he voted for the
dividend! But where was my lady friend at?"

He glared at her insultingly and, torn by that great passion that comes
from devotion misprized and sacrifice rewarded with scorn, she leapt up
to hurl back the truth. But a vision rose before her, the picture of
L. W. sobbing and bleeding, his arm flapping beside him, striving
vainly to retrieve his treachery; and the words did not pass her lips.

"_I'm_ not your friend, if that's what you mean," she answered with
withering scorn. "I'm against you, from this moment, on."

"Well, let it ride, then," he responded carelessly, and as she swept
from the room, he smiled.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SHOW-DOWN

For the few brief weeks before the great trial the office was swarming
with men. There were high-priced lawyers and geologists of renown and
experts on every phase of the suit, and in the midst of them sat
Rimrock Jones. He wore his big black hat that had cost him a hundred
dollars--including the hat-check tips at the Waldorf--and his pistol
was always at his hip. Every step of their case was carefully framed
up in the long councils that took place, but at the end Rimrock lost
his nerve. For the first time in his life, and with all eyes upon him,
he weakened and lowered his proud head. He had a hunch he would lose.

For all those weeks he had been haunted by a presence that always
flitted out of his way; but now she was there, in the crowded
court-room, and she greeted him with a slow, mirthless smile. It was
Mary Fortune and he remembered all too well that time when she had told
him he would lose. She had said he would lose because he had no case,
and because he used money instead; but he knew from that smile she had
other reasons for pronouncing his doom in advance. He had lawyers
hired who told him, to the contrary, that he had a very good case--and
Stoddard had spent money, too. Not openly, of course, but through his
attorneys; but that was customary, it was always done. No, behind all
her professions of respect for the judiciary and of worship for the
law, she must know that the right sometimes failed. But behind that
smile there was the absolute certainty that in some way he was certain
to lose.

He met her glance as he came into the court-room surrounded by a troop
of his friends, surrounded by lawyers and mining experts