Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain)

the hit-or-miss streets of Mesa, where derricks, shaft-houses, and gray slag-dumps

from simple, robust, self-reliant Westerners into a class of servile, nondescript newly rich, that resembled their unfettered selves as much as tame bears do the grizzlies of

n inkling, when Ridgway came out, the center of a circle of congratulating admirers. She was obliged to admit that he accepted their applause without in the least losing his head. Indeed, he took it as imperturbably as did Ho

?" she asked, after h

Never Say Die case in favor of Mr. R

great victo

appeal," admitted Hobart. "But we can't sa

imself from the group, was working toward her, and she felt an instinctive sympathy for the man who had

d;" and he climbed to

s with her, nodding coolly at her companion. "I'm a million dollars

man who sat beside her, misunderstood him promptly.

. "You're

gravely. "In the meantime, to avoid a congestion of traffic, we'l

e spoke on which it rested. "My

e the supreme court will reaffirm the decision of Judge Purcell, if

ack, laughing. "You've been subsidized b

imed her distinction no less certainly than the fine modeling of the mobile face. It was a distinction that stirred the pulse of his emotion and disarmed his keen, critical sense. Ridgway could study her with an amused, detached interest, but Hobart's admiration had traveled past that point

was to ask abruptly: "

urcell s

so-down in the bot

naturally be

Still, you have an option. Is he what his friends proclaim him-the generous-hearted independent fighting agai

ew here the angle of observation being

ur angle of

that's the reason he never is beaten finally. We have driven him to the wall a score of times. My experience with him is that h

she suggested with a li

e reaches for the first eff

yet," she reminded him. "Is he what hi

n only say that I'm

ded man," she r

must make allowances for his training and temperament, and for that quality of bigness in him. 'Medioc

queer sort of sai

eth century one o

n reporting dissatisfaction with his management of the Consolidated at the great financial center on Broadway which controlled the big copper company. Simon Harley, the dominating factor in the octopus whose tentacles reached out in every direction to monopolize the avenues of wealth, demanded of his subordinates results. Methods were no concern of his, and failure

uld be interesting to discover what he can't do-along utilitarian lines, I me

ess claims, and made them pay inside of a few weeks. Take the Taurus as a case in point. He st

ave just become engaged to him," explained Miss Virginia, as ca

t unpleasant things over with as soon as possible, rather than postpone them. Once, aetat eight, she had marched in to her mother like a stoic and announced: "I'v

but his eyes met hers very steadily and fairly. "I wish

you," and directed her att

er known. He has a bigger grasp of things than almost any financier in the country. I think you'll find he

thought so,"

ted at five dollars a day. He was just out of Cornell, and his assets consisted mainly of a supreme confidence in himself and an imposing presence. He was

pay, made good by raising money on a flying trip he took to the East. His father died about this time and left him fifty thousand dollars, with which he bought the Taurus, a mine in which several adventurous spirits had dro

at his luxurious offices, which looked more like a woman's boudoir than the business place of a Western miner. But that was merely part of Ridgway's v

ed so boldly into the territory of the great trust, but one glanc

elter, Mr. Ridgway," he began. "We'll take

sale, Mr.

you ten thousand more

tand me. It is

it to sell to us. Wh

suggeste

hout

e leases on others. When the Taurus begins produ

l smiled skeptically. "Didn't Johnson and

d dollars we make a st

rose to go, with an air of finality. "Bette

," disagre

e Mary K, the Diamond King, and the Marcus Daly. For some reason we accidentally omitted to file on it. Our chief engineer finds that you have taken it up, Mr. Ridgway. It is really of no value, but it is in the heart of ou

before he answered:

screamed

ust Buster. Before I'm through, yo

o the Consolidated officials, who

made possible. When the Consolidated attempted to harass him by legal process, he countered by instituting a score of suits against the company within the week. These had to do with wills, insanity cases, extra lateral rights, mine titles, and land and water rights. Wherever Ridgway saw room for an entering wedge to dispute the title of the Consolidated, he drove a new suit home. To say the

ple, an enemy of the trust. He declared an eight-hour day for his own miners, and called upon the Consolidated to do the same. Hobart refused, acting on orders from Bro

of extra lateral rights, a man is entitled to mine within the lines of other property than his own, provided he is following the dip of a vein which has its apex in his claim. Ridgway's experts were prepared to swear that all the best veins in the f

Hobart had told Miss Balfour, found him most dangerous when it seemed to have him with his back to the wall. Then unexpectedly would fall some crushing blow that put the financial kings of Broadway on the defensive long enough for him to slip out of the corner into which they had driven

o the Consolidated, had been forced by Ridgway, under menace of adverse legislation from the men he controlled at the State-house, to give him secretly a still better rate

pher from the Broadway headquarters. It announced the immediate departure for Mesa of the great leader of the octopus. Simon Harley, t

e smiled grimly, his bluegray eyes hardening to the temper of steel. Here at last was a foeman worthy of his