Rimrock Jones

D >> Dane Coolidge >> Rimrock Jones

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17

Ike Bray was there, looking pinched and scared, and the two guards who
had witnessed his relocation, and they testified to the facts. In vain
Rimrock's lawyers orated and thundered or artfully framed up their long
questions; it took days to do it, but when the testimony was all in it
was apparent that Ike Bray's claim would hold. But this was only the
beginning of the battle, the skirmish to feel out the ground; and now
the defense brought up its big guns. One after the other they put
experts on the stand to testify to the geology of the Tecolote; but
Cummins and Ford produced others as eminent who testified to the
opposite effect. So the battle raged until the wearied judge limited
the profitless discussion to one more day, and then Cummins and Ford
launched their bombshell.

"Your Honor," began Cummins as he rose with a great document. "I
should like to introduce as evidence this report, which unfortunately
has only just come to hand. As Your Honor has intimated the testimony
of hired experts is always open to suspicion of bias, and especially
where great interests are at stake; but I am able to offer for the
information of the Court a document both impartial and thorough. It is
the combined reports of three practical geologists employed by the
Tecolote Company itself, though at a time preceding this suit and
intended solely for the purposes of exploration. As Your Honor will
observe, although the reports were made independently and under orders
to seek nothing but the facts, they agree substantially in this: that,
within an extension of its end-lines, the Old Juan claim is the true
apex of the entire Tecolote ore body."

He handed over the report and sat down in triumph, while Rimrock's
lawyers all objected at once. The argument upon admitting to evidence
this secret but authoritative report, consumed the greater part of the
day; and at the end the plaintiff rested his case. Throughout the din
of words, the verbal clashes, the long and wearisome citing of
authorities and the brief "Overruled!" of the judge, Rimrock Jones sat
sullen and downcast; and at the end he got up and went out. No one
followed to cheer or console him--it was his confession of utter
defeat. And the following day, when the Court convened, a verdict was
rendered for the plaintiff. The lawyers and experts took their checks
and departed and Rimrock Jones went home.

He went back to Gunsight where he had seen his greatest triumphs and
his days of blackest defeat and waited for Stoddard to strike. It was
all over now--all over but the details and the final acceptance of
terms--and, while he waited, he packed up to go. No one knew better
than Rimrock himself that it was right and fitting to move on. Old
hatreds and animosities, old heart-burnings and recriminations, would
make Gunsight a hell-spot for him, and thwart him at every move. It
was best to go on to Mexico. Even Hassayamp and L. W. agreed in this,
although L. W. insisted upon staking him and declared it was all his
own fault. But Mary Fortune, whether she gloried in his fall or pitied
him for his great loss, kept discreetly out of his way.

She faced him the first time at the special meeting when Stoddard came
to lay down his terms. As a legal fiction, a technical subterfuge, he
still claimed to have bought up Bray's claim; but no one was deceived
as to his intent. If he had bought Bray out it was not for the
Company, but for Whitney H. Stoddard personally; and with no intention
of compromising. He came in briskly, his face stern and forbidding,
his eyes burning with ill-suppressed fire; and he sat down impatiently
to wait. Then as Rimrock slouched in and called the meeting to order
Stoddard picked up a piece of blank paper and began to tear it into
long, slender shreds.

"Well, to get down to business," said Rimrock at last after the various
reports had been read, "we have come here, I take it, for a purpose."

He raised his eyes and met Stoddard's defiantly, but Mary looked away.

"Yes, we have," answered Stoddard with business-like directness, "I
have a proposition to make. As I suppose you both know I have bought
up the claim of Mr. Bray, as decided by the court. That claim, of
course, practically invalidates your stock since it takes away
possession of the mine; but I am willing to make you a generous offer.
Our undivided profits--minus the amount, of course, that our General
Manager has squandered on his defense--will be shared among us, pro
rata. This will be in cash, and in consideration of the payment, I
shall expect you to turn in your stock."

"What? For nothing?" cried Mary; but Rimrock did not flinch though his
face became set with rage.

"It can hardly be called nothing," replied Stoddard severely, "when
your own share comes to over two hundred thousand dollars. And as for
Mr. Jones, he understands very well that I can claim every dollar he
has."

"Well, that may be so, since you have a claim against him, but my stock
is unencumbered. And since my share of the profits is in no sense a
payment I shall decline to turn in my stock."

"Very well," answered Stoddard, his voice low and colorless, "I shall
turn the matter over to my attorney and refuse to vote the dividend."

"Ah, I see," she murmured and glanced at Rimrock who answered with a
curl of the lip.

"Mr. President," she said, "I move that the money at present in our
treasury be set aside as a profit and divided among the stockholders
pro rata."

"Just a moment!" warned Stoddard as Rimrock seemed about to fall in
with her, "you can never collect that money. I have notified Mr.
Lockhart, the treasurer of our Company, that I will hold him personally
responsible for every dollar he pays out, without my official O.K. You
understand what that means. Within less than a month, through my suit
now in court, I can claim every share of Mr. Jones' stock. Its value,
in law, has been reduced to nothing, outside of this undivided profit;
and that I offer you now. If you refuse I shall get judgment, claim
his entire share of the profits, and take possession of the whole
Tecolote properties by right of the Old Juan decision. I advise you to
accept my first offer."

"All right," spoke up Rimrock, "I knew you'd rob me. Write out the
check and I'll be on my way."

"No, indeed!" cried Mary, "don't you let him fleece you! I've got
something to say here, myself!"

"Well, say it to him, then," returned Rimrock, wearily, "I'm sick and
disgusted with the whole business."

"Yes, naturally," observed Stoddard, reaching into his pocket and
deliberately pulling out his checkbook. "Most people are, by the time
I get through with them; and your case is no exception. You made the
mistake of trying to oppose me."

"I made the mistake," returned Rimrock hoarsely, "of trusting a lot of
crooks. But I never trusted you--don't you think it for a
minute--you've got n. g. written all over you."

"Another remark like that," said Stoddard freezingly, "and I'll put my
checkbook away."

"You do it," warned Rimrock without changing his position, "and I'll
blow the top of your head off."

Stoddard looked at him keenly, then uncapped his pen and proceeded to
fill out the stub. For a moment there was silence, broken by the soft
scratching of the pen, and then Mary Fortune stood up.

"I know it is customary," she said in suppressed tones, "for men to
settle everything themselves; but you, Mr. Stoddard, and you, Mr.
Jones, are going to listen to me. I have put up long enough with your
high-handed methods; but now, will you kindly look at that?"

She laid a paper on the table before Stoddard and stood back to watch
the effect, but Rimrock only grunted contemptuously.

"Aw, fill out my check!" he said impatiently, but Stoddard was staring
at the paper.

"Why, what is this? Where did you get this, Miss Fortune? I don't
think I quite understand."

"No, naturally! You overlooked the fact that a woman can jump claims,
too. That is a recorded copy of my re-location of the Old Juan claim,
at twelve-fifty-one, on January first. Your drunken Ike Bray came
along at one-thirty and tacked his notice over mine. And now I must
thank you, gentlemen, both of you, for your kind efforts in my behalf.
By spending your money on this expensive lawsuit you have proved my
title to the Tecolote Mine."

She sat down, smiling, and as Stoddard looked again at the paper his
drawn face went suddenly white. He laid it down and with startled eyes
glanced fearfully at those two. Would they stand together? Did she
realize her advantage? Could he buy her off--and for how much? A
hundred swift questions flashed through his mind, and then Rimrock
reached over for the notice. He gazed at it quietly and then, looking
at Mary, he gave way to a cynical smile.

"Could you hear through a wall?" he enquired enigmatically, and
Stoddard snapped his fingers in vexation.

"Ah, I see," he observed, "not so deaf as you seem. Well, Miss
Fortune, may I see you alone?"

"You may not!" she answered. "I might show you some pity, though you
don't deserve it; so, knowing Mr. Jones as I do, I will leave the
decision to him."

She glanced at Rimrock with a quick, radiant smile that revealed more
than she knew of her heart; but his face had suddenly gone grim.

"Take him out and kill him," he advised vindictively. "That's all the
advice I'll give."

"No, I don't believe in that," she answered sweetly, "but perhaps our
decision can wait."

"Well, you needn't wait for me," replied Rimrock ungraciously, "because
I'm through, for good and all. The first man that gives me a check for
my stock----"

Whitney Stoddard reached swiftly for his checkbook and pen, but she
stopped him with a warning look.

"No, there'll be nothing like that," she answered firmly. "But I moved
once that we declare a dividend."

"Second the motion," murmured Stoddard resignedly; and Rimrock, too,
voted: "Ay!"

Then he rose up sullenly and gazed at them both with a savage,
insulting glare.

"You can keep your old mine," he said to Mary. "I'm going to beat it
to Mexico!"

He started for the door and they looked after him, startled, but at the
doorway he stopped and turned back.

"Where do I get that check?" he asked and after a silence Mary answered:

"From Mr. Lockhart."

"Good!" he muttered and closed the door quietly, whereat Stoddard began
instantly to talk. He might have talked a long time, or only a few
moments; and then Mary began to hear.

"What's that?" she asked and Stoddard repeated what he considered a
very generous offer.

"Mr. Stoddard," she cried with almost tearful vehemence, "there's only
one condition on which I'll even think of giving you back your mine,
and that is that Rimrock shall run it. Mr. Jepson must be fired, Mr.
Jones must have full charge, and all this chicanery must stop; but if
Rimrock goes away without taking his mine I'll--I'll make you wish he
hadn't!"

She snatched up her papers and ran out of the room and Stoddard caught
up the 'phone.

"Give me Mr. Lockhart!" he said. "Yes, Lockhart, the banker. Mr.
Lockhart? This is Mr. Stoddard. If you pay Henry Jones a cent of that
money I'll break you, so help me God. And listen! If you value your
rating with Bradstreet, you make him apologize to that girl!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

A GIFT

Mary Fortune was pacing up and down her room in something very like a
rage. Her trunk, half-packed, stood against the wall and her pictures
lay face down on the bed, and she hovered between laughter and tears.
It seemed as if every evil passion in her nature had been stirred up by
this desperate affray and in the fierce swirl of emotions her joy in
her victory was strangely mingled with rage at Rimrock. After scheming
for months to prove her superiority, and arranging every possible
detail, she had been cut down in her pride and seen her triumph turned
to nothing by his sudden decision to sulk. Just at the very moment
when she was preparing to be gracious and give him his precious mine
back he had balked like a mule and without sense or reason stormed off
on his way to Old Mexico.

She returned to her packing and was brushing away a tear that had
fallen somehow on a fresh waist when there was a trampling in the lobby
and she heard a great voice wafted up from the corridor below.

"Come on!" it thundered like the hoarse rumbling of a bull. "Come on,
I tell ye; or you'll tear my arm loose where it's knit. You dad-burned
cub, if I had two good hands---- Say, come on; ain't you got a lick of
sense?"

It was L. W. Lockhart and, from the noise in the hallway, he seemed to
be coming towards her door. She listened and at a single rebellious
grunt from Rimrock she flew to the mirror and removed the last trace of
the tear. He was bringing Rimrock for some strange purpose, and--yes,
he was knocking at her door. She opened it on a struggle, Rimrock
begging and threatening and trying gingerly to break away; and
iron-jawed L. W. with his sling flying wildly, holding him back with
his puffed-up game hand.

"Excuse me, Miss Fortune," panted L. W. brokenly, "but I just had to
fetch this unmannerly brute back. He can't come, like he did, to my
place of business and speak like he did about you. You're the best
friend, by Gregory, that Rimrock Jones ever had; and I'll say that for
myself, Miss, too. You've been a _good_ friend to me and I'll never
forgit it, but Rim is jest naturally a fool!"

He stopped for breath and Rimrock set back sullenly without raising his
eyes from the floor.

"Now!" said L. W. as he winced at the pull, "you can decide what you're
going to do. Are you going to bust my arm, where I got it shot in two
jest by fighting Ike Bray for your mine; or are you going to stan' up
here and apologize like a gentleman for saying Miss Fortune sold you
out."

"I'll apologize, doggone you," answered Rimrock between his teeth, "if
you'll shut up and let go my coat."

"Well, all right, then," sighed L. W. as he cradled his injured arm,
"I'll wait for you at the head of the stairs."

"You do and I'll kill you," returned Rimrock savagely. "Go on,
now--and don't you come back."

He waved a threatening hand at the belligerent L. W. and watched him
till he passed down the stairs. Then, turning to Mary, he set his
mouth and looked her over grimly.

"Well, I apologize," he said. "Does that make you feel better? And
now I hope I may go."

"No, you can't," she replied. "Now it's my turn to apologize. And I
hope you have good luck."

She held out her hand and he glanced at it questioningly, then reached
out and took it in his.

"I mean it," he said with sudden earnestness. "I sure-enough
apologize. I'm sorry for what I done."

She patted his hand where it still held hers fast and bowed her head to
keep back the tears.

"It's all right," she said. "We could never be happy. It's better to
have you go."

"I'll come back!" he said with impulsive gladness. "I'll come back--if
you say the word."

"Well--come back, then," she answered. "But not to quarrel; not to
haggle, and backbite and scold! Oh, it makes me so ashamed! I used to
be reasonable; but it doesn't seem possible now. I can't even save
your mine, that you killed a man over and went to prison to defend; I
can't even do that but in such a hateful way that you won't accept it
as a gift."

"Aw, you take it too hard," protested Rimrock feebly. "Say, come on
over here and sit down." He led her reluctantly to the ill-fated
balcony, but at the divan she balked and drew back.

"No, not there," she said with a little shudder, and turned back and
sank down in a chair.

"Well, all right," agreed Rimrock, but as he drew up another he
suddenly divined her thought. "Say, I apologize again," he went on
abjectly, "for that time--you know--when she came. I was a Mexican's
dog, there's 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 there has never been a time during all our trouble, when, if you'd
only listened and trusted me, I wouldn't have helped you out. Now take
that letter that I wrote you in New York--I warned you they would jump
your claim! But when you didn't come and complete your assessment
work, I went up and jumped it myself. I got this great scar----" she
thrust back her hair--"coming down the Old Juan that night. But I did
it for you, I didn't do it for myself, and then--you wouldn't take back
your mine!"

She bowed her head to brush away the tears and Rimrock stared and
smiled at a thought.

"Well, I'll take it now," he said consolingly. "But I didn't
understand. I didn't know that you want to give things--I thought you
were on the make."

"Well, I was!" she declared, "I wanted all my rights--and I want them
all to-day. But if you'd trust me, Rimrock, if you'd always depend on
me to do the best that a woman can I'd--I'd give you anything--but you
always fight me. You always try to _take_!"

"Well, I won't any more," replied Rimrock penitently, yet with a
masterful look in his eyes. "But you'll have to make it easy, at
first."

"Why, what do you mean?" she asked rather tremulously. And then she
blushed and glanced swiftly about.

"All right, Rimrock," she whispered as she took both his hands and then
slipped into his arms. "I'll give you anything--if you'll only let me.
But remember, I do it myself."

CHAPTER XXIX

RIMROCK DOES IT HIMSELF

"Now, let's talk reason," said Rimrock at last as he put away her
hands. "Let's be reasonable--I don't know where I'm at. Say, where
have I been and what have I been up to? Am I the same feller that
blowed into town on the blind baggage, or is this all a part of the
dream?"

"It's a part of the dream," answered Mary with a sigh. "But if you
help, Rimrock, it may come true."

"Do you mean it?" he demanded. "Well, I guess you must or you wouldn't
give me a kiss like that. Say, you think a lot of me, now don't you,
Little Spitfire? I believe you'd go through hell for me."

"No, I wouldn't," she replied. "That's just where I draw the
line--because you'd be going through hell, too. You're a good man,
Rimrock--you've got a good heart--but you're a drunken, fighting brute."

"Hmm!" shrilled Rimrock, "say, that don't sound very nice after what
you said a minute ago."

"We're talking reason, now," said Mary, smiling wanly, "I was excited a
minute ago."

"Well, get excited again," suggested Rimrock, but she pushed his hands
away.

"No," she said, "I kissed you once because--well, because I liked you
and--and to show that I forgive what you've done. But a woman must
consider what love might mean and I'll never marry a drunkard. I know
women who have and they all regretted it--it took all the sweetness out
of life. A woman expects so much--so much of tenderness and sympathy
and gentleness and consideration--and a drunken man is a brute. You
know it, because you've been there; and, oh, you don't know how I'd
hate you if you ever came back to me drunk! I'd leave you--I'd never
consent for a minute to so much as touch your hand--and so it's better
just to be friends."

She sighed and hurried on to a subject less unpleasant.

"Now, there's the matter of that claim. You know I hold title to the
Old Juan and it gives me control of the mine. Even Stoddard
acknowledges it, although he'll try to get around it; and if we press
him he'll take it to the courts. But now listen, Rimrock, this is a
matter of importance and I want you to help me out. I want you to
attend to getting my discovery work before the ninety days has expired.
Then we'll draw up a complete and careful agreement of just what we
want at the mine and Whitney H. Stoddard, if I know anything about him,
will be only too glad to sign it. I told him before I left him that
this chicanery must cease and that you must be given back your mine. I
told him you must run it, and that Jepson must be fired--but Rimrock,
there's one thing more."

"What's that?" enquired Rimrock rousing up from his abstraction and she
smiled and patted his hand.

"You mustn't fight him," she suggested coaxingly. "It interferes with
the work."

"Fight who?" he demanded and then he snorted. "What, me make friends
with Stoddard? Why, it's that crooked hound that's at the bottom of
all this. He's the man that's made all the trouble. Why, we were
doing fine, girl; we were regular pardners and I wasn't drinking a
drop. I was trying to make good and show you how I loved you when he
butted in on the game. He saw he couldn't beat us as long as we stood
together and so he sent out that damnable Mrs. Hardesty. He hired her
on purpose and she worked me for a sucker by feeding me up with big
words. She told me I was a wonder, and a world-beater for a gambler,
and then--well, you know the rest. I went back to New York and they
trimmed me right, and if it wasn't for you I'd be broke. No, I'll
never forget what you did for me, Mary; and I'll never forget what he
did, either!"

"No, I hope you won't," she said, winking fast, "because that's what's
ruined your life. He can always whip you when it comes to business,
because you fight in the open and he never shows his hand. And he's
absolutely unscrupulous--he'd think no more of ruining our happiness
than--than you do, when you're fighting mad. Oh, if you knew how I
suffered during all those long months when you were stock-gambling and
going around with--her."

"Aw, now, Mary," he soothed, wiping away the sweat from his brow; and
then he took her into his arms. "Now, don't cry," he said, "because I
went back there to look for you--I paid out thousands of dollars for
detectives. And when I saw you that time, when you came down the
stairway in that opera house back in New York, I never went near her
again. I quit her at the door and had detectives out everywhere; but,
you went away, you never gave me a chance!"

"Well," she sobbed, "we all make mistakes, but--but I was so ashamed,
to be jealous of _her_. Couldn't you see what she was? Couldn't you
tell that type of woman? Oh, Rimrock, it was perfectly awful!
Everybody that saw you, every woman that looked at her, must have--oh,
I just can't bear to think about it!"

"My God!" groaned Rimrock; and then he was silent, looking sober-eyed
away into space. It came over him at last what this woman had borne
from him and yet she had been faithful to the end. She had even
befriended him after he had accused her of treachery, but she had
reserved the privilege of hating him. Perhaps that was the woman of
it, he did not know; if so, he had never observed it before. Or
perhaps--he straightened up and drew her closer--perhaps she was the
One Woman in the world! Perhaps she was the only woman he would ever
know who would love him for himself, and take no thought for his money.
She had loved him when he was poor----

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17