information of the Court a document both impartial and thorough. It is
the combined reports of three practical geologists employed by the
Tecolote Company itself, though at a time preceding this suit and
intended solely for the purposes of exploration. As Your Honor will
observe, although the reports were made independently and under orders
to seek nothing but the facts, they agree substantially in this: that,
within an extension of its end-lines, the Old Juan claim is the true
apex of the entire Tecolote ore body."

He handed over the report and sat down in triumph, while Rimrock's
lawyers all objected at once. The argument upon admitting to evidence
this secret but authoritative report, consumed the greater part of the
day; and at the end the plaintiff rested his case. Throughout the din
of words, the verbal clashes, the long and wearisome citing of
authorities and the brief "Overruled!" of the judge, Rimrock Jones sat
sullen and downcast; and at the end he got up and went out. No one
followed to cheer or console him--it was his confession of utter
defeat. And the following day, when the Court convened, a verdict was
rendered for the plaintiff. The lawyers and experts took their checks
and departed and Rimrock Jones went home.

He went back to Gunsight where he had seen his greatest triumphs and
his days of blackest defeat and waited for Stoddard to strike. It was
all over now--all over but the details and the final acceptance of
terms--and, while he waited, he packed up to go. No one knew better
than Rimrock himself that it was right and fitting to move on. Old
hatreds and animosities, old heart-burnings and recriminations, would
make Gunsight a hell-spot for him, and thwart him at every move. It
was best to go on to Mexico. Even Hassayamp and L. W. agreed in this,
although L. W. insisted upon staking him and declared it was all his
own fault. But Mary Fortune, whether she gloried in his fall or pitied
him for his great loss, kept discreetly out of his way.

She faced him the first time at the special meeting when Stoddard came
to lay down his terms. As a legal fiction, a technical subterfuge, he
still claimed to have bought up Bray's claim; but no one was deceived
as to his intent. If he had bought Bray out it was not for the
Company, but for Whitney H. Stoddard personally; and with no intention
of compromising. He came in briskly, his face stern and forbidding,
his eyes burning with ill-suppressed