that all
he is entitled to? Your friend"--he waved a hand toward Verinder,
puffing up the trail a hundred yards below--"draws millions of dollars
in dividends from the work of these men. What does he do to earn it?"

"You're a socialist," charged Joyce gayly. "Or is it an anarchist that
believes such dreadful things?"

"Mr. Kilmeny doesn't quite believe all he says," suggested Moya quietly.

"Don't I?" Behind Jack's quizzical smile there was a hint of
earnestness. "I believe that Dobyans Verinder is a parasite in
Goldbanks. He gobbles up the product of others' toil."

Joyce flashed at him a swift retort. "Then if you believe that, you
ought to be a highgrader yourself."

"Joyce," reproved Moya, aghast.

"I mean, of course, in principle," her friend amended, blushing slightly
at her own audacity.

Her impudence amused the miner. "Perhaps I am--in principle."

"But only in principle," she murmured, tilting a radiant challenge at
him.

"Exactly--in principle," he agreed. There was humor in his saturnine
face.

Joyce ventured one daring step further. "But of course in practice----"

"You should have been a lawyer, Miss Seldon," he countered. "If you
were, my reply would be that by advice of counsel I must decline to
answer."

"Oh, by advice of counsel! Dear me, that sounds dreadfully legal,
doesn't it, Moya? Isn't that what criminals say when----?"

"----When they don't want to give themselves away. I believe it is," he
tossed back with the same lightness. "Before I make confession I shall
want to know whether you are on my side--or Verinder's."

Under the steady look of his bold, possessive eyes the long silken
lashes fell to the soft cheeks. Joyce understood the unvoiced demand
that lay behind the obvious one. He had thrown down the gage of battle.
Was she for Verinder or for him? If he could have offered her one-half
the advantages of his rival, her answer would not have been in doubt.
But she knew she dared not marry a poor man, no matter how wildly his
presence could set her pulses flying or how great her longing for him.
Not the least intention of any romantic absurdity was in her mind. When
the time came for choice she would go to Verinder and his millions. But
she did not intend to let Jack Kilmeny go yet.

She lifted to him a face flushed and excited, answering apparently his
words and not his thoughts. "I haven't decided yet. How can I tell till
I hear what you have to say for yourself?"

"You