The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 39: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

GOLD GRABBERS. had best give me credit for that right from the beginning.” “Deane will never be able to ac- complish anything here,” she declared sharply, “no matter who takes up the work for him. I should hate to see you go the way Griggsby went or suffer as Lacey has suffered. I want to help you!” | “Then keep hands off. Call away your gang. By doing that, you will not only help me but help yourself a good deal more.” “We want peace, but not at that price. If it is to be war between you and my father and me, it is war of your own bringing.” Call it what you will, I am here to serve Deane.” “Then you are serving a scoun- drel!”’ she flamed. With a_ superb, dramatic gesture, she pulled the gauntlet from her left hand and flung it down in front of him. “You will bring that back to me on your knees before you are done with the Mallorys!” she cried, and whirled and ran from the office. He picked up the glove curiously, wouderingly, while the beat of her horse’s hoofs died swiftly away along the trail that led out of the valley. CHAPTER X. DOUBLE-DEALING. “ ACTRESS,” muttered Bremerton— “actress to the core!’”’ He threw the small glove upon the table with an angry gesture. “So I am to take that back to her on my knees, am [?” He pictured himself crawling at the feet of Mariquita Mallory and humbly lifting that gage of battle which she had flung at him. A grim smile curled his lips. “I wonder if she takes me for a coward or a sentimental fool?” He felt as though he had just come off the stage after taking part in a scene from a melodrama. His annoy- ance was keen, and he was surprised a 509 moment later to find himself beside the table and again holding the glove in his hands. The girl was two-faced; in his own mind there could be no doubt about that. And yet there was something undeniably attractive about her, some- thing winsome, appealing. | He would have given a month’s pay to hear the truth in the matter of Deane’s deal for the Mariquita Mine. But from what unprejudiced source was the truth to come? Certainly not from the girl. Lacey had found her “most dangerous when she smiled.” Bremer- ton ground out an exclamation and crushed the glove in his strong fingers. Unlocking a drawer of the desk he dropped Miss Mallory’s property into it, along with the ball of amalgam and the mended chamois skin, and turned the key on the collection. The gleaming ball reminded him that he had work to do, and he left the office and mounted the low incline that led to the mill. A man on the ore platform was shoveling rock into the crusher. The superintendent picked up a piece at random and examined it. It was fairly good ore, but not the kind that would make the Mariquita worth half a million dollars. He tossed the sample into the hopper and climbed through an opening in the rough board wall and descended three or four steps to the ore loft. The stamp-stems of the two bat- teries were lifting and falling with a force that shook the old mill in-every part. The uproar was deafening, so close at hand. The crusherman was also the ore-feeder, and while he was busy on the platform outside Bremerton had the ore-loft to himself. Making his way between the batteries of dancing stamp-stems, he halted at the edge of the loft and looked down into the body of the mill. Directly beneath him were the mill- plates, covered with a thin sheet of flowing water. The water was stained COMicdoo S CO@