"What? To Stoddard"s man? Why, you must think I"m crazy. Jepson has hired a lawyer and looked up that claim to the last infinitesimal hickey; he knows more about the Old Juan than I do. And speaking about quarrels, don"t you know that fellow deliberately framed the whole thing? He wanted to know just where I stood on the Old Juan--and he wanted to get me in bad with you."
"With me?"
"Yes, with you! Why, can"t you see his game? If he can get you to throw your vote against me he can knock me out of my control. Add your stock to Stoddard"s and it makes us fifty-fifty--a deadlock, with Jepson in charge. And if he thought for a minute that I couldn"t fire him he"d thumb his nose in my face."
Mary smiled at this picture of primitive defiance in a battle of grown-up men and yet she saw dimly that Rimrock was right in his estimate of Jepson"s motives. Jepson did have a way that was subtly provocative and his little eyes were shifty, like a boxer"s. As the two men faced each other she could feel the antagonism in every word that they said; and, looking at it as he did, it seemed increasingly reasonable that Rimrock"s way was the best. It was better just to fight back without showing his hand and let Jepson guess what he could.
"But if we"d stand together--" she began at last and Rimrock"s face lit up.
"That"s it!" he said, leaping forward with his hand out, "will you shake on it? You know I"m all right!"
"But not _always_ right," she answered smiling, and put her hand in his. "But you"re honest, anyway; and I like you for that. It"s agreed, then; we stand together!"
"No-ow, that"s the talk!" grinned Rimrock approvingly, "and besides, I need you, little Mary."
He held on to her hand but she wrested it away and turned blushing to her work.
"Don"t be foolish!" she said, but her feelings were not hurt for she was smiling again in a minute. "Don"t you know," she confided, "I feel utterly helpless when it comes to this matter of the mine. Everything about it seems so absolutely preposterous that I"m glad I"m not going to be a Director."
"But you are!" came back Rimrock, "now don"t tell me different; because you"re bull-headed, once you"ve put yourself on record. There ain"t another living soul that I can trust to take that directorship. Even Old Ha.s.sayamp down here--and I"d trust him anywhere--might get drunk and vote the wrong way. But you----"
"You don"t know me yet," she replied with decision. "I won"t get drunk, but I"ve got to be convinced. And if you can"t convince me that your way is right--and reasonable and just, as well--I give you notice that I"ll vote against you. Now! What are you going to say?"
"All right!" he answered promptly, "that"s all I ask of you. If you think I"m wrong you"re welcome to vote against me; but believe me, this is no Sunday-school job. There"s a big fight coming on, I can feel it in my bones, and the best two-handed sc.r.a.pper wins. Old W. H.
Stoddard, when he had me in jail and was hoping I was going to be sent up, he tried to buy me out of this mine. He started at nothing and went up to twenty million, so you can guess how much it"s worth."
"Twenty million!" she echoed.
"Yes; twenty million--and that ain"t a tenth of what he might be willing to pay. Can you think that big? Two hundred million dollars?
Well then, imagine that much money thrown down on the desert for him and me to fight over. Do you think it"s possible to be pleasant and polite, and always reasonable and just, when you"re fighting a man that"s never quit yet, for a whole danged mountain of copper?" He rose up and shook himself and swelled out his chest and then looked at her and smiled. "Just remember that, in the days that are coming, and give me the benefit of the doubt."
"But I don"t believe it!" she exclaimed incredulously. "What ground have you for that valuation of the mine?"
"Well, his offer, for one thing," answered Rimrock soberly. "He never pays what a thing is worth. But did you see Mr. Jepson when I went into the a.s.say house and began looking at those diamond-drill cores?
He was sore, believe me, and the longer I stayed there the more fidgety Jepson got. That ore a.s.say"s big, but the thing that I noticed is that all of it carries some values. You can begin at the foot of it and work that whole mountain and every cubic foot would pay. And that peac.o.c.k ore, that copper glance! That runs up to forty per cent. Now, here"s a job for you as secretary of the Company, a little whirl into the higher mathematics. Just find the cubic contents of Tecolote mountain and multiply it by three per cent. That"s three per cent.
copper, and according to those a.s.says the whole ground averages that.
Take twenty claims, each fifteen hundred feet long, five hundred feet across and say a thousand feet deep; pile the mountain on top of them, take copper at eighteen cents a pound and give me the answer in dollars and cents. Then figure it out another way--figure out the human cussedness that that much copper will produce."
"Why--really!" cried Mary as she sat staring at him, "you make me almost afraid."
"And you can mighty well be so," he answered grimly. "It gets me going sometimes. Sometimes I get a hunch that I"ll take all my friends and go and camp right there on the Old Juan. Just go out there with guns and hold her down, but that ain"t the way it should be done. The minute you show these wolves you"re afraid they"ll fly at your throat in a pack. The thing to do is to look "em in the eye and keep your gun kind of handy, so."
He tapped the old pistol that he still wore under his coat and leaned forward across her desk.
"Now tell me this," he said. "Knowing what you know now, does it seem so plain criminal--what I did to that robber, McBain?"
Mary met his eyes and in spite of her the tears came as she read the desperate longing in his glance. He was asking for justification after those long months of silence, but his deed was abhorrent to her still.
She had shuddered when he had touched that heavy pistol whose shot had snuffed out a man"s life; and she shuddered when she thought of it, when she saw his great hand and the keen eyes that had looked death at McBain. And yet, now he asked it, it no longer seemed criminal, only brutal and murderous--and violent. It was that which she feared in him, much as she was won by his other qualities, his instinctive resort to violence. But when he asked if she considered it plain criminal she was forced to answer him:
"No!"
"Well, then, what is the reason you always keep away from me and look like you didn"t approve? Ain"t a man got a right, if he"s crowded too far, to stand up and fight for his own? Would you think any better of me if I"d quit in the pinch and let McBain get away with my mine?
Wasn"t he just a plain robber, only without the nerve, hiring gun-fighters to do the rough work? Why, Mary, I feel proud, every time I think about it, that I went there and did what I did. I feel like a man that has done a great duty and I can"t stand it to have you disapprove. When I killed McBain I served notice on everybody that no man can steal from me, not even if he hides behind the law. And now, with all this coming up, I want you to tell me I did right!"
He thrust out his big head and fixed her eyes fiercely, but she slowly shook her head.
"No," she said, "I can never say that. I think there was another way."
"But I tried that before, when he robbed me of the Gunsight. My G.o.d, you wouldn"t have me go to law!"
"You didn"t need to go to law," she answered, suddenly flaring up in anger. "I warned you in plenty of time. All you had to do was to go to your property and be there to warn him away."
"Aw, you don"t understand!" he cried in an agony. "Didn"t I warn him to keep away? Didn"t I come to his office when you were right there and tell him to keep off my claims? What more could I do? But he went out there anyhow, and after that there was nothing to do but fight!"
"Well, I"m glad you"re satisfied," she said after a silence. "Let"s talk about something else."
"No, let"s fight this out!" he answered insistently. "I want you to understand."
"I do," she replied. "I know just how you feel. But unfortunately I see it differently."
"Well, how do you see it? Just tell me, how you feel and see if I can"t prove I"m right."
"No, it can"t be proved. It goes beyond that. It goes back to the way we"ve been brought up. My father was a judge and he worshiped the law--you men out West are different."
"Yes, you bet we are. We don"t worship any law unless, by grab, it"s right. Why, there used to be a law, a hundred years ago, to hang a man if he stole. They used to hang them by the dozen, right over there in England, and put their heads on a spike. Could you worship that law?
Why, no; you know better. But there"s a hundred more laws on our statute books to-day that date clear back to that time, and lots of them are just as unreasonable. I believe in justice, and every man for his own rights, and some day I believe you"ll agree with me."
"That isn"t necessary," she said, smiling slightly, "we can proceed very nicely without."
"Aw, now, that"s what I mean," he went on appealingly. "We can proceed, but I want more than that. I want you to like me--and approve of what I do--and love and marry me, too."
He poured it out hurriedly and reached blindly to catch her, but she rose up and slipped way.
"No, Rimrock," she said as she gazed back at him from a distance, "you want too much--all at once. To love and to marry are serious things, they make or mar a woman"s whole life. I didn"t come out here with the intention of marrying and I have no such intention yet. And to win a woman"s love--may I tell you something? It can never be done by violence. You may take that big pistol and win a mountain of copper that is worth two hundred million dollars, but love doesn"t come that way. You say you want me now, but to-morrow may be different. And you must remember, you are likely to be rich."
"Yes, and that"s why I want you!" burst out Rimrock impulsively. "You can keep me from blowing my money."
"Absolutely convincing--from the man"s point of view. But what about the woman"s? And if that"s all you want you don"t have to have me.
You"ll find lots of other girls just as capable."
"No, but look! I mean it! I"ve got to have you--we can throw in our stock together!"
There was a startled pause, in which each stared at the other as if wondering what had happened, and then Mary Fortune smiled. It was a very nice smile, with nothing of laughter in it, but it served to recall Rimrock to his senses.
"I think I know what you mean," she said at last, "but don"t you think you"ve said enough? I like you just as much; but really, Rimrock, you"re not very good at explaining."