enough. I don't know another man would have done it, would have
had the courage to do it after his feet were set so securely in the way
of success. The trouble with Americans is that they want too much
success. They want it at too big a price."

"I'm not likely ever to have too much of it," he laughed sardonically.

"Success in life and success in living aren't the same thing. It is
because you have discovered this that you have sacrificed the less for
the greater." She smiled, and added: "I didn't mean that to sound as
preachy as it does."

"I'm afraid you make too much of a small thing. My squeamishness has
probably made me the laughing-stock of Mesa."

"If so, that is to the discredit of Mesa," she insisted stanchly. "But
I don't think so. A great many people who couldn't have done it
themselves will think more of you for having done it."

Another pony, which had been slithering down the steep trail in the
midst of a small rock slide, now brought its rider safely to a halt in
the road. Virginia introduced them, and Hobart, remembered that he had
heard Miss Balfour speak of a young woman whom she had met on the way
out, a Miss Laska Lowe, who was coming to Mesa to teach domestic
science in the public schools. There was something about the young
teacher's looks that he liked, though she was of a very different type
than Virginia. Not at all pretty in any accepted sense, she yet had a
charm born of the vital honesty in her. She looked directly at one out
of sincere gray eyes, wide-awake and fearless. As it happened, her
friend had been telling her about Hobart, and she was interested in him
from the first. For she was of that minority which lives not by bread
alone, and she felt a glow of pride in the man who could do what the
Sun had given this man credit for editorially.

They talked at haphazard for a few minutes before the young women
cantered away. As Hobart trudged homeward he knew that in the eyes of
these two women, at least, he had not been a fool.

CHAPTER 14. A CONSPIRACY

Tucked away in an obscure corner of the same issue of the papers which
announced the resignation of Lyndon Hobart as manager of the
Consolidated properties, and the appointment of James K. Mott as his
temporary successor, were little one-stick paragraphs regarding
explosions, which had occurred the night before in tunnels of the
Taurus and the New York. The general public paid little attention to
these, but those on the inside