no use talking, but--oh, well, I've been a damned fool."

"You mustn't swear so much," she corrected him gently; and then they
gazed at each other in silence. "It's strange," she murmured, "how we
hated each other. Almost from the first day, it seems. But no, not
the first! I liked you then, Rimrock; better than I ever will again.
You were so clean and strong then, so full of enthusiasm; but
now--well, I wish you were poor."

"Ain't I broke?" he demanded and she looked at him sadly as she slowly
shook her head.

"No, you're rich," she said. "I'm going to give you back the mine, and
then I'm going away."

"But I don't want it!" he said. "Didn't I tell you to keep it? Well,
I meant it--every word."

"Ah, yes," she sighed. "You told me--I know--but to-morrow is another
day. You'll change your mind then, the way you always do. You see, I
know you now."

"You do not!" he denied. "I don't change my mind. I stick to one idea
for years. But there's something about you--I don't know what it
is--that makes me a natural-born fool."

"Yes. I make you mad," she answered regretfully. "And then you will
say and do anything. But now about the mine. I left Mr. Stoddard in
the office just biting his fingers with anxiety."

"Well, let him bite 'em," returned Rimrock spitefully, "I hope he eats
'em off. If it hadn't been for him, and that Mrs. Hardesty, and all
the other crooks he set on, we'd be friends to-day--and I'd rather have
that than all the mines in the world."

"Oh, would you, Rimrock?" she questioned softly. "But no, we could
never agree. It isn't the money that has come between us. We blame
it, but it's really our own selves. You will gamble and drink, it's
your nature to do it, and that I could never forgive. I like you,
Rimrock, I'm afraid I can't help it, but I doubt if we can even be
friends."

"Aw, now listen!" he pleaded. "It was you drove me to drink. A man
can get over those things. But not when he's put in the wrong in
everything--he's got to win, sometimes."

"Yes, but, Rimrock, there has never been a time when you couldn't have
had everything you wanted--if you wouldn't always be fighting for it.
But when you distrust me and go against me and say that I've sold you
out, how can a woman do anything but fight you back? And I will--I'll
never give up! As long as you think I'm not as good as you are--just
as smart, just as honest, just as brave--I'll never give in an inch.
But t