at remark? Did I ever ask more than you
yourself had promised, or than would be awarded in a court of law? And
couldn't I have said, when you went off without seeing me or writing a
single word; couldn't I have said, when you went off with my money and
were enjoying yourself in New York, that _I_ had been trimmed--by a
_man_?"

She spat out the word with such obvious resentment that Rimrock jumped
and looked towards the door. It came over him suddenly that this mild,
handsome woman was at heart strictly anti-man. That was putting it
mildly, she was anti-Jones and might easily be tempted too far; for
right there in her hand she held two thousand shares of stock that
could be used most effectively as a club.

"Well, just let me explain," he stammered abjectly. "I want you to
know how that came about. When I came back from the claims I'd spent
all that money and I had to have two thousand more. I had to have it,
to get back to New York, or our mine wouldn't have been worth anything.
Well, I went to L. W., the banker up here, and bluffed him out of the
money. But I know him too well--he'd think it over and if he caught me
in town he'd renig. Demand back his money, you understand; so I ran
out and swung up on the freight. Never stopped for nothing, and that
was the reason I never came around to call."

"And your right hand?" she asked sweetly, "the one that you write with?
It was injured, I suppose, in the mine. I saw it wrapped up when you
rode past the window, so everything is nicely explained."

She kept on smiling and Rimrock squirmed in his chair, until he gave
way to a sickly grin.

"Well, I guess you've got me," he acknowledged sheepishly, "never was
much of a hand to write."

"Oh, that's all right," she answered gamely, "don't think I mean to
complain. I'm just telling you the facts so you'll know how I felt
when you suggested that you had been trimmed. Now suppose, for
example, that you were a woman who had lost all the money she had. And
suppose, furthermore, that you had an affliction that an expensive
operation might cure. And suppose you had worked for a year and a half
to save up four hundred dollars, and then a man came along who needed
that money ten times as badly as you did. Well, you know the rest. I
loaned you the money. Don't you think I'm entitled to this?"

She picked up the certificate of stock and readjusted the 'phone
receiver to her ear; and Rimrock Jones, after staring a