wn his head and kissed him. "I can't help it!" she whispered. "I
love you, Rimrock; I can't bear to let you go!"

She clung to him passionately and with tremulous laughter tugged to
draw him back to the divan, but Rimrock stood upright and stubborn.
Some strange influence, some memory, seemed to sweep into his brain and
make him immune to her charm. It was the memory of a kiss, but not
like her kisses; a kiss that was impulsive and shy. He pondered
laboriously, while he took hold of her hands and slowly drew them away,
and then his strong grip tightened. It was the kiss that Mary had
given him in prison, when she had laid her cheek against the bars!
That kiss had haunted him through the long months of waiting, and it
rose in his memory now, when perhaps it were better forgotten. He put
away the hands that still clung and petted and gazed fiercely into her
eyes. And the woman faced him--without a tear on her cheek for all the
false weeping she had done.

"How's this?" he said and as she sensed his suspicion she jerked back
in sudden defiance.

"A stock-jobber!" she mocked. "All you think of is money. The love of
a woman is nothing to you!"

"Aw, cut out that talk!" commanded Rimrock brutally. "Some women are
stock-jobbers, too. And speaking of stock, just give me a look at
those two thousand shares of Tecolote."

A sullen, sulky pout distorted her mouth and she made a face like a
wilful girl.

"You'd snatch them," she said, "and run away and leave me. And then
what would I say to Stoddard?"

"Are you working for him?" he asked directly and she threw out her arms
in a pet.

"No! I wish I were, but it's too late now. I might have made money,
but as it is I stand to lose everything."

"Oh, you stand to lose everything, do you? Well say, that reminds me,
I guess I stand about the same!"

He picked up his hat and started for the door, but she caught him by
the arm.

"You're going to that woman!" she hissed vindictively, "perhaps I can
tell you something about her. Well, I can!" she declared, "and I can
prove it, too. I can prove it by my Tecolote stock."

"You haven't got any stock," answered Rimrock roughly. But he stopped
and she drew back and smiled.

"Oh!" she said as she noted his interest, "you're beginning to believe
me now. Well, I can show you by the endorsement where she sold out to
Stoddard over a month before I came. She sold him two thousand shares
of Tecolote for exactly two