FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   >>  
get excited again," suggested Rimrock, but she pushed his hands away. "No," she said, "I kissed you once because--well, because I liked you and--and to show that I forgive what you've done. But a woman must consider what love might mean and I'll never marry a drunkard. I know women who have and they all regretted it--it took all the sweetness out of life. A woman expects so much--so much of tenderness and sympathy and gentleness and consideration--and a drunken man is a brute. You know it, because you've been there; and, oh, you don't know how I'd hate you if you ever came back to me drunk! I'd leave you--I'd never consent for a minute to so much as touch your hand--and so it's better just to be friends." She sighed and hurried on to a subject less unpleasant. "Now, there's the matter of that claim. You know I hold title to the Old Juan and it gives me control of the mine. Even Stoddard acknowledges it, although he'll try to get around it; and if we press him he'll take it to the courts. But now listen, Rimrock, this is a matter of importance and I want you to help me out. I want you to attend to getting my discovery work before the ninety days has expired. Then we'll draw up a complete and careful agreement of just what we want at the mine and Whitney H. Stoddard, if I know anything about him, will be only too glad to sign it. I told him before I left him that this chicanery must cease and that you must be given back your mine. I told him you must run it, and that Jepson must be fired--but Rimrock, there's one thing more." "What's that?" enquired Rimrock rousing up from his abstraction and she smiled and patted his hand. "You mustn't fight him," she suggested coaxingly. "It interferes with the work." "Fight who?" he demanded and then he snorted. "What, me make friends with Stoddard? Why, it's that crooked hound that's at the bottom of all this. He's the man that's made all the trouble. Why, we were doing fine, girl; we were regular pardners and I wasn't drinking a drop. I was trying to make good and show you how I loved you when he butted in on the game. He saw he couldn't beat us as long as we stood together and so he sent out that damnable Mrs. Hardesty. He hired her on purpose and she worked me for a sucker by feeding me up with big words. She told me I was a wonder, and a world-beater for a gambler, and then--well, you know the rest. I went back to New York and they trimmed me ri
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   >>  



Top keywords:
Rimrock
 
Stoddard
 
friends
 
matter
 
suggested
 
patted
 

smiled

 

trimmed

 

abstraction

 
demanded

damnable
 

rousing

 

interferes

 
coaxingly
 

purpose

 

chicanery

 
Hardesty
 

Jepson

 
enquired
 

drinking


couldn

 

pardners

 

regular

 

butted

 

feeding

 

bottom

 
gambler
 

crooked

 

snorted

 

sucker


trouble

 

beater

 

worked

 
sympathy
 

gentleness

 

consideration

 
drunken
 
tenderness
 

expects

 
sweetness

consent
 

minute

 

regretted

 

kissed

 

excited

 

pushed

 

forgive

 

drunkard

 
discovery
 

ninety