came an interval of drumming and of tra-loo-ing and tra-lee-ing.

"You ain't no fool," Sanderson announced to Smoke. "You said if it
wasn't worth a hundred thousand it wasn't worth ten cents. Yet you offer
five thousand for it. Then it IS worth a hundred thousand."

"You can't make twenty cents out of it," Smoke replied heatedly. "Not if
you stayed here till you rot."

"I'll make it out of you."

"No, you won't."

"Then I reckon I'll stay an' rot," Sanderson answered with an air of
finality.

He took no further notice of his guests, and went about his culinary
tasks as if he were alone. When he had warmed over a pot of beans and a
slab of sour-dough bread, he set the table for one and proceeded to eat.

"No, thank you," Shorty murmured. "We ain't a bit hungry. We et just
before we come."

"Let's see your papers," Smoke said at last. Sanderson fumbled under the
head of his bunk and tossed out a package of documents. "It's all tight
and right," he said. "That long one there, with the big seals, come
all the way from Ottawa. Nothing territorial about that. The national
Canadian government cinches me in the possession of this town-site."

"How many lots you sold in the two years you've had it?" Shorty queried.

"None of your business," Sanderson answered sourly. "There ain't no law
against a man living alone on his town-site if he wants to."

"I'll give you five thousand," Smoke said. Sanderson shook his head.

"I don't know which is the craziest," Shorty lamented. "Come outside a
minute, Smoke. I want to whisper to you."

Reluctantly Smoke yielded to his partner's persuasions.

"Ain't it never entered your head," Shorty said, as they stood in the
snow outside the door, "that they's miles an' miles of cliffs on both
sides of this fool town-site that don't belong to nobody an' that you
can have for the locatin' and stakin'?"

"They won't do," Smoke answered.

"Why won't they?"

"It makes you wonder, with all those miles and miles, why I'm buying
this particular spot, doesn't it?"

"It sure does," Shorty agreed.

"And that's the very point," Smoke went on triumphantly. "If it makes
you wonder, it will make others wonder. And when they wonder they'll
come a-running. By your own wondering you prove it's sound psychology.
Now, Shorty, listen to me; I'm going to hand Dawson a package that will
knock the spots out of the egg-laugh. Come on inside."

"Hello," said Sanderson, as they re-entered. "I thought I