"I don't want one," he said when his friends urged it on him. "I wish every lawyer was dead."
He sat in gloomy silence as the Gunsight justice of the peace went through the formalities of a preliminary examination and then, while they waited for the next train to Geronimo, he and the deputy dropped in on Mary Fortune.
"Good morning," he said, flushing up as she looked at him, "can you spare me a few minutes of your time?"
"Why, certainly," she answered, and he spoke to the deputy, who waited outside the door.
"I've had a little trouble," went on Rimrock grimly as he sat down where he could speak into her transmitter, "and I want you to help me out. Mr. Hicks over here is guarding the mine and I've sent four more boys out to help, but there's a whole lot of business coming up. Can you hold down the job of Secretary?"
Mary Fortune thought a moment, then nodded her head and waited to hear what he would say.
"All right," he said, "I'll telegraph East and have the appointment O.K.'d. Then there's another matter. We're going to lay that railroad across the desert as they never laid one before—six months will see it done—but even that don't suit us. We're going to lay out our millsite and have everything ready the day that railroad is done. Then we're going to erect the mill and install the machinery and go to throwing dirt. Eight months at the least and we'll have a producing property shipping trainloads of ore every day. Well, what I was going to say—there's a man named Jepson, a mining engineer, coming out to superintend that work and I want you to give him all the assistance you can and help boost the thing along. That's all—I'll send you a check and the papers—you can address me at the County Jail."
He rose hastily and started for the door, then looked back with questioning eyes.
"Very well," she said and he dropped his head and slouched heavily out the door.
Mary Fortune sat alone, staring absently after him. What a contradictory man he was. And yet, how well he understood. He knew without telling that she would not take his hand so he kept it behind his back; but he knew at the same time that she would attend to his business while his address was the County Jail. And no plea for sympathy, no word of explanation; just business, and then he was gone. His life was at stake, and yet he spoke of nothing but the mine. "A little trouble!" And he had killed a man. Was he a savage or a superman?