"No; it is one of the earliest of the Copah prospects, and I suppose the discoverer named it. I am willing to defend his choice, though. He couldn't have found a prettier name." She went back to the matter in hand with womanly swiftness. "But the mine: you had a right to buy it, didn't you?" "I should suppose so. I paid for it with my own money, anyway." "Then why should Mr. North use it as an argument against you in speaking to Uncle Sidney? He did that--I am sure he did that." "Now the water has grown too deep for me," said Ford. "Why, North, himself, is interested in Copah, openly. He owns half a dozen claims." "Near yours?" she queried. Ford stopped to consider. "To tell the truth, I don't know where mine is," he confessed. "I bought it as the school-boys trade pocket-knives--sight unseen. You wouldn't believe it of a grown man, would you?" "What made you buy it at all?" Again he told the simple truth--and tried not to flinch. "You won't mind if I say that the name attracted me? I thought a mine, or anything, that bore your name, ought to be good and--and desirable. And it is a good mine; or it will be, by and by. Some morning I shall wake up and find myself rich. At least that is what my partner, Grigsby, assures me; and I believe him when I happen to remember it." She neither approved nor disapproved. When she spoke, it was of the present necessity. "We must go back to the others now," she said. "Or at least I must. Do you know what is to be done to-day?" Ford spread his hands. "Your uncle will set the pace. I wouldn't venture a guess, after last night." He was handing her down from the engine step and she went back in a word to the former contention. "You haven't promised me yet that you will not resign under fire--you are under fire, you know." "Am I?" "Brother thinks you are." Once more he took the pessimistic view. "Your brother isn't losing any sleep over the Pacific Southwestern situation. You said he was in England, didn't you?" "I said he was in London when he wrote." "London is a long way off: and what I do must be done to-day or to-morrow. Mr. North will force the fighting, now that your uncle is on the ground, and your brother safely on the opposite side of the earth. And I can't afford to fight this time, Miss Alicia." "Why can't you?" They were walking slowly back toward the Nadia when he said: "Because a victory would cost me more than I am willing to pay. There is no longer room in this service for Mr. North and me. If we come to blows one of us will have to go." "I can understand that," she said quietly. "And to obliterate Mr. North, I shall be obliged to efface--your uncle." She caught her breath. "Mr. Ford, you have intimated that Mr. North isn't an honest man. Do you ask me to believe that Uncle Sidney is his accomplice?" "He is not, knowingly. But he will stand or fall with the man he has made. I should have to ride him down before I could get at North."