health. Not a word was said by Rimrock or his friends
as to the source of this sudden wealth. For once in his life Rimrock
Jones was reticent, but the roll of bills spoke for itself. He came
out of Woo Chong's restaurant with a broad grin on his face and looked
about for the next man he owed.

"You can talk all you want to," he observed to the onlookers, "but a
Chink is as white as they make 'em. And any man in this crowd," he
added impressively, "that ever loaned me a cent, all he has to do is to
step out and say so and he gets his money back--and then some."

The crowd surged about, but no one stepped forward. Strange stories
were in the air, resurrected from the past, of Rimrock and the way he
paid. When the Gunsight mine, after many difficulties, began to pay
back what it had cost, Rimrock had appeared on the street with a roll.
And then, as now, he had announced his willingness to pay any bill,
good or bad, that he owed. He stood there waiting, with the bills in
his hand, and he paid every man who applied. He even paid men who
slipped in meanly with stories of loans when he was drunk; but he noted
them well and from that day forward they received no favors from him.

"Ah, there's the very man I'm looking for," exclaimed Rimrock in
Spanish as he spied old Juan in the crowd and, striding forward, he
held out his hand and greeted him ceremoniously. Old Juan it was of
whom he had borrowed the gold ore that had coaxed the two thousand
dollars from L. W.--and he had never sent the picked rock back.

"How are you, Juan?" he enquired politely in the formula that all
Mexicans love. "And your wife, Rosita? Is she well also? Yes, thank
God, I am well, myself. Where is Rico now? He is a good boy,
truly--will you do one more thing for me, Juan?"

"Si, Si, Senor!" answered Juan deferentially; and Rimrock smiled as he
patted his shoulder.

"You are a good man, Juan," he said. "A good friend of mine--I will
remember it. Now get me an ore-sack--a strong one--like the one that
contained the picked gold."

"Un momento!" smiled Juan hurrying off towards the store and the
Mexicans began to swarm to and fro. Some reward, they knew, was to be
given to Juan to compensate him for the loss of his gold. His gold and
his labor and all the unpaid debt that was owing to him and his son and
the rest. The streets began to clatter with flying hoofs as they rode
off to summon el pueblo, and by the time Old Juan returned wi