Rimrock Jones | Page 9

went before a judge that
was as crooked as he was and the rest you can see for yourself."
He thrust his thumb scornfully through a hole in his shirt and waved a
hand in the direction of the office.
"No, he cleaned me out, using a friend of mine; and now I'm down to
nothing. What do you think of a law that will take away a man's mine
because it apexes on another man's claim? I discovered this mine and I
formed the company, keeping fifty-one per cent. of the stock. I opened
her up and she was paying big, when Andy McBain comes along. A
shyster lawyer--that's the best you can say for him--but he cleaned me,
down to a cent."
"I don't understand," she said at last as he seemed to expect some reply.
"About these apexes--what are they, anyway? I've only been West a
few months."
"Well, I've been West all my life, and I've hired some smart lawyers,
and I don't know what an apex is yet. But in a general way it's the high
point of an ore-body--the highest place where it shows above ground.
But the law works out like this: every time a man finds a mine and

opens it up till it pays these apex sharps locate the high ground above
him and contest the title to his claim. You can't do that in Mexico, nor
in Canada, nor in China--this is the only country in the world where a
mining claim don't go straight down. But under the law, when you
locate a lode, you can follow that vein, within an extension of your
end-lines, under anybody's ground. Anybody's!"
He shifted his chair a little closer and fixed her with his fighting blue
eyes.
"Now, just to show you how it works," he went on, "take me, for
instance. I was just an ordinary ranch kid, brought up so far back in the
mountains that the boys all called me Rimrock, and I found a rich ledge
of rock. I staked out a claim for myself, and the rest for my folks and
my friends, and then we organized the Gunsight Mining Company.
That's the way we all do, out here--one man don't hog it all, he does
something for his friends. Well, the mine paid big, and if I didn't
manage it just right I certainly never meant any harm. Of course I spent
lots of money--some objected to that--but I made the old Gunsight pay.
"Then--" he raised his finger and held it up impressively as he marked
the moment of his downfall--"then this McBain came along and edged
into the Company and right from that day, I lose. He took on as
attorney, but it wasn't but a minute till he was trying to be the whole
show. You can't stop that man, short of killing him dead, and I haven't
got around to that yet. But he bucked me from the start and set
everybody against me and finally he cut out Lon Lockhart. There was a
man, by Joe, that I'd stake my life on it he'd never go back on a friend;
but he threw in with this lawyer and brought a suit against me, and just
naturally took--away--my--mine!"
Rimrock's breast was heaving with an excitement so powerful that the
girl instinctively drew away; but he went on, scarcely noticing, and
with a fixed glare in his eyes that was akin to the stare of a madman.
"Yes, took it away; and here's how they did it," he went on, suddenly
striving to be calm. "The first man I staked for, after my father and kin
folks, was L. W. Lockhart over here. He was a cowman then and he

had some money and I figured on bidding him in. So I staked him a
good claim, above mine on the mountain, and sure enough, he came
into the Company. He financed me, from the start; but he kept this
claim for himself without putting it in with the rest. Well, as luck
would have it, when we sunk on the ledge, it turned at right angles up
the hill. Up and down, she went--it was the main lode of quartz and
we'd been following in on a stringer--and rich? Oh, my, it was rotten!"
He paused and smiled wanly, then his eyes became fixed again, and he
hurried on with his tale.
"I was standing out in front of my office one day when Tuck Edwards,
the boy I had in charge of the mine, came riding up and says:
"'Rim, they've jumped you!'
"'Who jumped me?' I says.
"'Andrew McBain and L. W.!' he says and I thought at first he was
crazy.
"'Jumped our mine?' I says. 'How can they jump it