thing to do with
a mine." He took both her hands in one of his and put them firmly
away. "It's between me and him," he said and went off without looking
back.

CHAPTER X

THE FIGHT FOR THE OLD JUAN

When a man's honor is questioned--his honor as a fighting man--it is
the dictum of centuries of chivalry that he shall not seek to avoid the
combat. A great fortune was at stake, many millions of dollars and the
possession of a valuable mine, and yet Rimrock Jones did not move. He
walked around the town and held conferences with his friends until word
came at last that he was jumped.

"All right," he said and with Hassayamp and L. W. he started across the
desert to his mine. Red-handed as he was from a former treachery, L.
W. did not fail Rimrock in this crisis and his cactus-proof automobile
took them swiftly over the trail that led to the high-cliffed
Tecolotes. He went under protest as the friend of both parties, but
all the same he went. And Hassayamp Hicks, who came from Texas where
men held their honor above their lives; he went along as a friend in
arms, to stand off the gunmen of McBain.

The news had come in that Andrew McBain had left Geronimo under cover
of the night, with an automobile load of guards, and the next day at
dawn some belated stampeders had seen them climbing up to the dome.
There lay the apex of the Tecolote claims, fifteen hundred lateral feet
that covered the main body of the lode; and with the instinct of a mine
pirate McBain had sought the high ground. If he could hold the Old
Juan claim he could cloud the title to all the rich ground on both
sides; and at the end of litigation, if he won his suit, all the
improvements that might be built below would be of value only to him.
Always providing he won; for his game was desperate and he knew that
Rimrock would fight.

He had flung down the challenge and, knowing well how it would end, he
had had his gunmen barricade the trail. They were picked-up men of
that peculiar class found in every Western town, the men who live by
their nerve. There were some who had been officers and others outlaws;
and others, if the truth were known, both. And as neither officers nor
outlaws are prone to question too closely the ethics of their
particular trade so they asked no questions of the close-mouthed
McBain, except what he paid by the day. Now, like any hired fighters,
they looked well to their own safety and let McBain do the worrying for