United States or Benin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There was a moment of confusion and then, as McBain turned to run, the bang of Rimrock's gun. Andrew McBain went down, falling forward on his face, and as Rimrock whirled on the startled gunmen they shot blindly and broke for cover. The fight had got beyond them, their hearts were not in it and they knew that McBain was dead.
Ike Bray was there, looking pinched and scared, and the two guards who had witnessed his relocation, and they testified to the facts. In vain Rimrock's lawyers orated and thundered or artfully framed up their long questions; it took days to do it, but when the testimony was all in it was apparent that Ike Bray's claim would hold.
There was a man, by Joe, that I'd stake my life on it he'd never go back on a friend; but he threw in with this lawyer and brought a suit against me, and just naturally took away my mine!" Rimrock's breast was heaving with an excitement so powerful that the girl instinctively drew away; but he went on, scarcely noticing, and with a fixed glare in his eyes that was akin to the stare of a madman.
She was thinking of Rimrock Jones, and she was watching Rimrock's proxy. Like a criminal on trial L. W. sat glowering, his dead cigar still in his teeth; and before the end of the report was reached the sweat was beading his face. "Well, I, for one," began Stoddard diplomatically, "most heartily approve of this plan.
Her brain cleared like a flash and she remembered Rimrock's instructions concerning land for the Company's office. The wire could wait and Whitney H. Stoddard the first thing to do was to get an option, for even telegraph operators have been known to talk.
It was picked gold quartz of the richest kind, with jewelry specimens on top, and as L. W. ran his hand through it his tight mouth relaxed from its bulldog grip on the cigar. "Where'd you get it?" he grunted and Rimrock's eyes flashed as he answered shortly: "My mine." "How much more you got?" L. W. asked it suspiciously, but the gold-gleam had gone to his heart.
But, strictly as a friend and for old time's sake, Buckbee had offered to sell Rimrock's stock at a profit; he had even gone further and promised to pass it on to Stoddard, who was in the market to protect his holdings. At twenty-four, which was where it was selling, Rimrock would clean up a tidy sum; and every cent of that absolute velvet would come out of Stoddard's pocket.
He strode off down the street and L. W. followed after him, beckoning feverishly to every one he met. "Say, Rimrock's struck it rich!" he announced behind his hand and the procession fell in behind. Straight down the street Rimrock went to the Alamo where old Hassayamp stood shading his eyes, and while the crowd gathered around them he took Hassayamp's hand and shook it again and again.
A vein of poetry, of unsuspected romance, developed in Rimrock's mind and, far from discouraging it or seeming to belittle it, Mrs. Hardesty responded in kind. It was a rare experience in people so different, this exchange of innermost thoughts, and as their voices grew lower and all the world seemed far away, they took no notice of a ghost.
A hundred voices rang out at once, giving Rimrock all kinds of advice, but L. W.'s rose above them all. "Don't you do it!" he roared. "He'll clean you, for a certainty!" But Rimrock's blue eyes were aflame. "All right, Mr. Man," he answered on the instant, and went over and sat down in his chair. "But bring me a new pack and shuffle 'em clean, and I'll do the cutting myself."
Word Of The Day