for the truck
driver was held up, as you know, and the money taken."

"Why not put an armed guard on that truck?" asked Rathburn with a
yawn.

"I had full confidence in that ruse, and I knew the man who drove the
truck could be trusted. Besides, he didn't know what was inside the
package."

"How much did they get?" asked Rathburn sharply.

"Twenty-two thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars in cash."

Rathburn stared at the mine manager and whistled softly. "What's the
sense in sending it up there at all?" he asked suddenly. "Why not pay
off down here in town?"

Sautee sighed with an air of resignation. "That's been argued several
times," he complained. "The men demand their pay in cash. They want it
at the mine, for more than half of them have refused to come down here
for it. It is twenty-nine miles up there to the mine, and it would
take all the trucks we've got and two days to bring them down here and
take them back. Besides, if we got them down here it would be a week
before we could get half of them back up there and at work again."

"But why won't they take checks?" Rathburn demanded.

"It would be the same proposition," Sautee explained. "There is a
little village up there--pool room, soft-drink parlor, lunch room,
store, and all that--and the men, or a large number of them, would
want their checks cashed to make purchases and for spending money, and
the cash would have to be transported so the business places could
cash the checks. Then, there's another reason. All the mines over on
this side of the mountains, clear down into the desert, have always
paid in cash. This is an old district, and the matter of getting paid
in cash has become a tradition. That's what the company is up against.
We can refuse to do it, but all the other mines do it, and the Dixie
Queen would soon have the reputation of being the only mine in the
district that didn't pay in cash. The tradition is handed down from
the old days when men were paid in gold. There was a time when a miner
wouldn't take paper money in this country!"

The waiter entered with the breakfast dishes and they began to eat.

"Your mine owned by a stock company?" Rathburn inquired.

"Certainly," replied Sautee. "All the mines here are. What mine
isn't?"

Rathburn ignored the question. "Stockholders live aroun' here?" he
asked, between mouthfuls.

"Oh--no, that is, not many," replied Sautee with a quick glance at his
questioner. "This district is pr