rd?"

"McVicker and Ord! They're a couple of mutton-heads. Why, Bray has
got Cummins and Ford. I know they're good, because they beat me out of
the Gunsight; but they're nothing to the men I've retained. I've
telegraphed money to ten attorneys already--the best in the United
States, so Ben Birchett, my Geronimo lawyer, says--and they'll be here
within a few days. It'll be a galaxy of the finest legal talent that
ever took a case in Arizona. Ben told me frankly when I called him up
Long Distance that we've got a very weak case; but you wait, they'll
frame something up. We're fighting Stoddard, there isn't a doubt about
it; but we're spending his money, too."

He met her gaze with a disarming grin and the reproaches died on her
lips. After all, it was his right, after what he had suffered, to have
this one, final fling. He was nothing but a child, a great overgrown
boy, and it was fitting he should have his jest. And between him and
Stoddard, the ice-cold lightning-calculator who kept count of every
cent, there was really little to choose. Only Rimrock, of course, was
human. He was a drunken and faithless gambler; a reckless, fighting
animal; a crude, thoughtless barbarian; but his failings were those of
a man. He didn't take advantage of everybody--it was only his enemies
that he raided.

"Yes, you're spending his money," she conceded pleasantly, "but part of
it is yours and--mine."

"Well, all right, then," he said after a moment's thought, "I'll show
you where it's gone."

"No, I didn't mean that," she said, "my point is, don't throw it away.
If we lose this suit, and I think we will, you'll need something to
make a fresh start."

"Nope, it's dead loss to me, whichever way you figure it--if I don't
spend it, it goes to Stoddard. He won't have any mercy on me, even if
we win this case. My stock is gone when the ninety days are up. The
most I can hope is to beat him on this suit. That will make my
Tecolote stock more valuable and maybe I can borrow the money to pay
off the debt at the bank. But I'm busted, right now; I can see my
finish. It's just a question of the epitaph the boys will put over my
grave, and I want that to be: 'He did his damnedest!' Then I'll get
out of town with whatever I have left and begin all over again, down in
Mexico."

"Oh, won't that be fine!" she cried enthusiastically, but Rimrock
looked at her dubiously.

"What, to lose all my money?"

"No, to begin all over