"I hope I wasn't rude," she stammered nervously as she sat down and met his glance. "Oh, no," he said with the same carefree directness, "it was me, I reckon, that was rude. I certainly didn't count on meeting a lady when I came in here looking for--well, McBain. He won't be back, I reckon. Kind of interferes with business, don't it?" He paused and glanced at the rear door and the typist smiled, discreetly. "Oh, no," she said. And then, lowering her voice: "Have you had trouble with Mr. McBain?" "Yes, I have," he answered. "You may have heard of me--my name is Henry Jones." "Oh--_Rimrock_ Jones?" Her eyes brightened instantly as he slowly nodded his head. "That's me," he said. "I used to run this whole town--I'm the man that discovered the mines." "What, the Gunsight mines? Why, I thought Mr. McBain----" "McBain _what_?" "Why, I thought _he_ discovered the mines." Rimrock straightened up angrily, then he sat back in his chair and shook his head at her cynically. "He didn't need to," he answered. "All he had to do was to discover an error in the way I laid out my claim. Then he 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.