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"Well, you needn't wait for me," replied Rimrock ungraciously, "because I'm through, for good and all. The first man that gives me a check for my stock " Whitney Stoddard reached swiftly for his checkbook and pen, but she stopped him with a warning look. "No, there'll be nothing like that," she answered firmly. "But I moved once that we declare a dividend."
"Well, stay where you are," ordered the gunman sternly, "or I'll kill you, sure as hell." Rimrock swayed back and forth as he clung to a bush that he had clutched in his first lurching fall and as he labored for breath he gazed about wildly at the unfamiliar faces of the men. "Who are you boys?" he asked at last and as nobody answered him he glanced swiftly back down the trail.
Now at last she understood the inexplicable reticence with which Rimrock had veiled his associate's name and her heart almost stopped as she thought how close she had come to parting with her Tecolote stock. Those two thousand shares, if she held on to them to the end, might bring her in thousands of dollars!
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.
"Why? what makes you think he does?" She laughed. "You don't know Mr. Stoddard as well as I do. He's a very successful man. Very thorough. If he set out to find Mary Fortune he'd be almost sure to do it." "Hm," said Rimrock. "I'd better watch him, then. I'll call up about that to-morrow. Just have a man there to watch the door she might be going in or out."
Rimrock Jones left town with four burro-loads of powder, some provisions and a cargo of tools. He paid cash for his purchases and answered no question beyond saying that he knew his own business. No one knew or could guess where he had got his money except Miss Fortune, and she would not tell.
You're a good man, Rimrock you've got a good heart but you're a drunken, fighting brute." "Hmm!" shrilled Rimrock, "say, that don't sound very nice after what you said a minute ago." "We're talking reason, now," said Mary, smiling wanly, "I was excited a minute ago." "Well, get excited again," suggested Rimrock, but she pushed his hands away.
"Why, no," she said with a faint flicker of venom, "I didn't, to tell you the truth. That's why I told you I was talking business; but you said: 'Well, so am I." "Well, holy Jehosophrats!" cursed Rimrock to himself and turned to look her straight in the eyes. "Now let's get down to business," he went on sternly, "what do you want, and where am I at?"
Give him credit for five hundred more," he added and the clerk showed Rimrock out. There are certain formalities that the richest must observe before they can borrow half a million and it was nearly noon before Rimrock was free and on his way to the hotel. He was just leaping out of his taxicab when he saw Mrs. Hardesty reeling towards him.
"Why don't you bet?" snapped Bray; but Rimrock jerked his head and beckoned him to go on. "Yes, and lose half on splits," he answered grimly, "I'll bet when it comes the last turn." The deal went on till only three cards remained in the bottom of the box. By the record of the case-keeper they were the deuce and the jack the top card, already shown, did not count.
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