ther's. He mortgaged his cows to raise the money for her and then that
old terror--I don't care if she is your mother--she slapped him in the
face by refusing it. Well, he didn't like to say anything, but you can
tell her from me she don't have to cook unless she wants to! She can
sell--or buy--a hundred thousand shares of Paymaster any day she says
the word; and if that isn't honest I don't know what is! I ask you, now;
isn't that fair?"

"What, at ten cents a share? When it used to sell for forty dollars!
He's just trying to get control of the mine. And as for offering to buy
or sell, that's perfectly ludicrous, because he knows we haven't any
money!"

"Well, what _do_ you want?" he demanded irritably, and then he thrust
up his lip. "I know," he said, "you want your own way! All right, I'll
never trouble you again. You can keep right on guarding that
hole-in-the-ground until you dry up and blow away across the desert.
And as for that old she-devil----"

He paused at a sudden slam from the kitchen, and Virginia's eyes grew
big; but as he rose to face the Widow Huff he slipped the white rock
into his pocket.

CHAPTER II

THE SHOTGUN WIDOW

The Widow Huff was burdened with a tray and her eye sought wildly for
Virginia but when she glimpsed Wiley moving swiftly towards the door she
set down his dinner with a bang. The disrespectful epithet which he had
applied to her had been lost in the clatter of plates, but the moment
the Widow came into the room she sensed the hair-trigger atmosphere.

"Here!" she ordered, taking command on the instant. "Come back here,
young man, and pay me for this dinner! And Virginia Huff, you go out
into the kitchen--how many times do I have to speak to you?"

Virginia started and stopped, her resentful eyes on Wiley, a thin smile
parting her lips.

"He said----" she began, and then Wiley strode back and slapped down a
dollar on the table.

"Yes, and I meant it, too," he answered fiercely. "There's your pay--and
you can keep your mine."

"Why, certainly," responded the Widow without knowing what she was
talking about, "and now you eat that dinner!"

She pointed a finger to the tray of food and looked Wiley Holman in the
eye. He wavered, gazing from her to the smiling Virginia, and then he
drew up his chair.

"I'll go you," he said and showed his teeth in a grin. "You can't hurt
my feelings that way."

He lifted the T-bone steak from the platter and transferred it swiftl