"I warned you in plenty of time. All you had to do was to go
to your property and be there to warn him away."

"Aw, you don't understand!" he cried in an agony. "Didn't I warn him
to keep away? Didn't I come to his office when you were right there
and tell him to keep off my claims? What more could I do? But he went
out there anyhow, and after that there was nothing to do but fight!"

"Well, I'm glad you're satisfied," she said after a silence. "Let's
talk about something else."

"No, let's fight this out!" he answered insistently. "I want you to
understand."

"I do," she replied. "I know just how you feel. But unfortunately I
see it differently."

"Well, how do you see it? Just tell me, how you feel and see if I
can't prove I'm right."

"No, it can't be proved. It goes beyond that. It goes back to the way
we've been brought up. My father was a judge and he worshiped the
law--you men out West are different."

"Yes, you bet we are. We don't worship any law unless, by grab, it's
right. Why, there used to be a law, a hundred years ago, to hang a man
if he stole. They used to hang them by the dozen, right over there in
England, and put their heads on a spike. Could you worship that law?
Why, no; you know better. But there's a hundred more laws on our
statute books to-day that date clear back to that time, and lots of
them are just as unreasonable. I believe in justice, and every man for
his own rights, and some day I believe you'll agree with me."

"That isn't necessary," she said, smiling slightly, "we can proceed
very nicely without."

"Aw, now, that's what I mean," he went on appealingly. "We can
proceed, but I want more than that. I want you to like me--and approve
of what I do--and love and marry me, too."

He poured it out hurriedly and reached blindly to catch her, but she
rose up and slipped way.

"No, Rimrock," she said as she gazed back at him from a distance, "you
want too much--all at once. To love and to marry are serious things,
they make or mar a woman's whole life. I didn't come out here with the
intention of marrying and I have no such intention yet. And to win a
woman's love--may I tell you something? It can never be done by
violence. You may take that big pistol and win a mountain of copper
that is worth two hundred million dollars, but love doesn't come that
way. You say you want me now, but to-morrow may be different. And you
must remember, you are likely to b