in their innocence to gain stock in the company and
to hawk it about the streets; but neither had thought to suggest the
customary Article: "The stock of said company shall be non-assessable."
The Articles of Incorporation had been drawn up by Phillip F. Lapham;
and yet, after all his hard experiences, Wunpost was so awed by the
legal procedure that he forgot all about the fine print. Not that it
made any difference, they would have trimmed him anyway, but it was
three times in the very same place! He cursed himself out loud for an
ignorant baboon and left Wilhelmina in tears.

She had come down with her mother, her father being busy, and they had
planned to take in the town; but after this final misfortune Wilhelmina
lost all interest in the busy marts of trade. What to her were clothes
and shoes when she had no money to buy them--and when overdressed women,
none too chaste in their demeanor, stared after her in boorish
amusement? Blackwater had become a great city, but it was not for
her--the empty honor of having the Willie Meena named after her was all
she had won from her mine. John C. Calhoun had been right when he warned
her, long before, that the mining game was more like a dog fight than it
was like a Sunday school picnic; and yet--well, some people made money
at it. Perhaps they were better at reading the fine print, and not so
precipitate about signing Articles of Incorporation, but as far as she
was concerned Wilhelmina made a vow never to trust a lawyer again.

She returned to the ranch, where the neglected garden soon showed signs
of her changing mood; but after the weeds had been chopped out and
routed she slipped back to her lookout on the hill. It was easier to
tear the weeds from a tangled garden than old memories from her lonely
heart; and she took up, against her will, the old watch for Wunpost, who
had departed from Blackwater in a fury. He had stood on the corner and,
oblivious of her presence, had poured out the vials of his wrath; he had
cursed Eells for a swindler, and Lapham for his dog and Lynch for his
yellow hound. He had challenged them all, either individually or
collectively, to come forth and meet him in battle; and then he had
offered to fight any man in Blackwater who would say a good word for any
of them. But Blackwater looked on in cynical amusement, for Eells was
the making of the town; and when he had given off the worst of his venom
Wunpost had tied up his roll and departed.

He