e
pain. And back at Gunsight, trying to forget her hate, Mary Fortune
fought her battle alone.

There was great excitement--it amounted almost to a panic--when Mary
Fortune stepped in on Jepson. During her unexplained absence he had
naturally taken charge of things, with L. W. of course, to advise; and
to facilitate business he had moved into the main office where he could
work with the records at hand. Then, as months went by and neither she
nor Rimrock came back to assert their authority, he had rearranged the
offices and moved her records away. Behind the main office, with its
plate-glass windows and imposing furniture and front, there were two
smaller rooms; the Directors' meeting place and another, now filled
with Mary's records. A clerk, who did not even know who she was, sat
at his ease behind her fine desk; and back in the Directors' room, with
its convenient table, L. W. and Jepson were in conference. She could
see them plainly through the half-opened door, leaning back and smoking
their cigars, and in that first brief interval before they caught sight
of her she sensed that something was wrong.

Of course there were apologies, and Jepson insisted upon moving out or
giving her any room she chose, but Mary assured him she had not come
back permanently and the smaller room would do just as well. Then she
set about writing the notices of the annual meeting, which had to be
sent out by her hand, and Jepson recovered from his fright. Perhaps he
recovered too much; for Mary Fortune had intuitions, and she remembered
that first glimpse of L. W. As the agent of Rimrock and his legal
representative it was desirable, of course, to be friends; but Jepson,
it was well known, was the agent of Stoddard and Stoddard was after
their mine. Therefore it ill became Lockhart, with one treachery
against him, to be found smoking so comfortably with Jepson.

So astonished and stunned had she been by the changes and the sudden
suspicions that arose that Mary at first had stood startled and silent,
and Jepson had raised his voice. At this he remembered that she had
gone East for an operation to help restore her hearing and, seeing her
now so unresponsive, he immediately assumed the worst. So he shouted
his explanations and Mary, flushing, informed him that she could hear
very well.

"Oh, I beg your pardon," he apologized abjectly; but she noticed that
he kept on shouting. And then in a flash of sudden resentment she bi