else that _they'd_ wronged!"

She said the words bitterly with a lash to her tongue that cut Rimrock
Jones to the quick. It had always been his boast that there was no man
or woman that could claim he had done them a wrong, and he answered
back sharply, while the anger was upon him, that he was not and there
was no such thing.

"Well, if that's the case, then," she suggested delicately but with a
touch of malice in her smile, "it seems rather personal to begin now
with me, and take away my right to vote. Did this man in New York,
when he bought into your company, agree to vote with you, right or
wrong? Well then, why should I? Wasn't my money just as necessary,
when I gave it to you, as his was when he gave it, later?"

"Oh--" Rimrock choked back an oath and then fell back on personalities
to refute her maddening logic.

"Say, your father was a judge," he burst out insultingly. "Was he a
promoted lawyer, too; or did you learn that line of talk from McBain?"

"Never mind about that. You haven't answered my question. Wasn't my
money just as necessary as his? It was! Yes, you know it. Well,
then, why should you choose me for the very first person that you ever
intentionally wronged?"

"Well, by grab," moaned Rimrock, slumping down in his chair as he saw
his last argument gone, "it was a black day for me when I took that
four hundred from you. I'd have done a heap better to have held up
some Chinaman or made old L. W. come through. And to be trimmed by a
woman! Well, gimme your paper and I'll sign whatever you write!"

She drew in her lips and gazed at him resentfully; then, sitting down
at her typewriter, she thought for a minute and rattled off a single
sentence. Rimrock took the paper and signed it blindly, then stopped
and read what it was.

"I, Henry (Rimrock) Jones, for value received, hereby agree to give to
Mary Roget Fortune, one per cent. of the total capital stock of the
Tecolote Mining Company."

"Yes, all right," he said. "You'll get your stock just as soon as I
get it from the East. And now I hope, by the Lord, you're satisfied."

"Yes, I am," she answered and smiled cryptically.

"Well, I pass!" he exploded and, struggling to his feet, he lurched out
upon the street.

CHAPTER VII

BUT COMES BACK FOR MORE

From the highest pinnacle of success to the black depths of despair is
a long way to drop in one hour and if Rimrock Jones went the way of all
flesh it is only an