ll drive me mad!" cried the Widow in a frenzy. "Virginia,
come in here and help me!"

Virginia came in with the steak slightly scorched and laid his dinner
before Wiley. Her eyes were rather wild, for she had been listening
through the doorway, but she turned to her mother inquiringly.

"He says he's sold his tax claim," wailed the Widow in despair, "for one
hundred dollars--to Blount. And then he turns around and says his father
will buy my stock for ten cents a share in cash. But he won't lend me
the money to pay my note to Blount and get my Paymaster stock back."

"That's right," nodded Wiley, "you've got it all straight. Now let's
quit before we get into a row."

He bent over the steak and, after a meaning look at Virginia, the Widow
discreetly withdrew.

"We saw you fighting George," ventured Virginia at last as he seemed
almost to ignore her presence. "Weren't you afraid he'd get mad and
shoot you?"

"Uh, huh," he grunted, "wasn't I hiding behind Blount? No, I had him
whipped from the start. Bad conscience, I reckon; these crooks are all
the same--they're afraid to fight in the open."

"But _your_ conscience is all right, eh?" suggested Virginia
sarcastically, and he glanced up from under his brows.

"Yes," he said, "we've got 'em there, Virginia. Are you still holding
onto that stock?"

A swift flood of shame mantled Virginia's brow and then her dark eyes
flashed fire.

"Yes, I've got it," she said, "but what's the answer when you sell out
your tax claim to Blount?"

"I wonder," he observed and went on with his eating while she paced
restlessly to and fro.

"You told me to hold it," she burst out accusingly, "and then you turn
around and sell!"

"Well, why don't _you_ sell?" he suggested innocently, and she paused
and bit her lip. Yes, why not? Why, because there were no buyers--except
Wiley Holman and his father! The knowledge of her impotence almost
drove her on to further madness, but another voice bade her beware.
He had given her his advice, which was not to sell, and--oh, that
accursed assayer! If she had his report she could flaunt it in his
face or--she caught her breath and smiled.

"No," she said, "you told me not to!"

And Wiley smiled back and patted her hand.

CHAPTER X

THE BEST HEAD IN TOWN

What was Wiley Holman up to? Virginia paced the floor in a very
unloverlike mood; and at last she sat down and wrote a scathing letter
to the assayer, demanding her assay at onc