on with me--I'll double your money; and what's more I'll stand up
for my rights!" He looked around at the line of gun-fighters, but
their set lips did not answer his smile. Only in their eyes, those
subtle mirrors of the mind, did he read the passing reflex of their
scorn. "You're scared, you coward," went on Rimrock scathingly as
McBain looked warily about. "Come out, if you're a man, and prove your
title, or by grab, I'll come in there and get you!"

He stopped with a grunt for the hard-eyed captain had jabbed him with
the muzzle of his gun.

"None of that," he said, but Rimrock took no notice--his eyes were
fixed on McBain.

He came out of the hole with a waspish swiftness, though there was a
wild, frightened look in his eyes; and as he advanced towards the
barricade he drew out a bulldog pistol and held it awkwardly in his
hand.

"Mr. Jones," he began in his harsh lawyer's voice, "don't think for a
moment you can bluff me. These men have their orders and at the first
show of violence I have told them to shoot you dead. Now regarding
this claim, formerly known as the Old Juan, you have no legal right to
the same. In the first place, Juan Soto, whom you hired to locate it,
is not an American citizen and therefore his claim is void. In the
second place the transfer for the nominal sum of ten dollars proves
collusion to perpetrate a fraud. And in the third place----"

"You're a liar!" broke in Rimrock, his breast heaving with anger, "he's
as much a citizen as you are. He's been registered in Gunsight for
twenty years and his vote has never been challenged."

"Juan Bautista Soto," returned McBain defiantly, "was born in Caborca,
Sonora, on the twenty-fourth day of June, eighteen sixty. I have a
copy of the records of the parish church to prove he is Mexican-born.
And in the third place----"

"And in the third place," burst out Rimrock, raising his voice to a
yell, "that proves conclusively that you've set out to steal my mine.
I don't give a damn for your thirdlys and fourthlys, nor all the laws
in the Territory. To hell with a law that lets a coyote like you rob
honest men of their mines. This claim is mine and I warn you now--if
you don't get off of it, I'll kill you!"

He dropped his hand to his pistol and the startled gunmen looked
quickly to their captain for a cue. But the captain stood
doubtful--there were two sides to the question, and a man will only go
so far to earn ten dollars a day.