ents were obtained under that ruling. Then
Charley had a bright idea.

"Look here, Cliff," he said to Cathcart. "I know something about
farming; I was brought up on a farm. This country will grow anything
anywhere if it has water. That lower country they call a desert, but
that's only because it hasn't any rainfall. We're going to have a lot of
water at the end of that flume----"

They bought the desert land at fifty cents an acre; scraped ditches and
checks; planted a model orchard, and went into the real estate business.
In time a community grew up. When hydro-electric power came into its own
Cathcart & Gates from their various water rights furnished light for
themselves, and gradually for the towns and villages round-about. Thus
their affairs spread and became complicated. Before they knew it they
were wealthy, very wealthy. Their wives--for in due course each had his
romance--began to talk of San Francisco.

All this had not come about easily. At first they had to fight tooth and
nail. The conditions of the times were crude, the code merciless. As
soon as the firm showed its head above the financial horizon, it was
swooped upon. Business was predatory. They had to fight for what they
got; had to fight harder to hold it. Cathcart was involved continually
in a maze of intricate banking transactions; Gates resisted aggression
within and without, often with his own two fists. They learned to trust
no man, but they learned also to hate no man. It was all part of the
game. More sensitive temperaments would have failed; these succeeded.
Cathcart became shrewd, incisive, direct, cold, a little hard; Charley
Gates was burly, hearty, a trifle bullying. Both were in all
circumstances quite unruffled; and in some circumstances ruthless.

About 1900 the entire holdings of the Company were capitalized, and a
stock company was formed. The actual management of the lumbering, the
conduct of the farms and ranches, the running of the hydro-electric
systems of light and transportation, were placed in the hands of active
young men. Charley Gates and his partner exercised over these activities
only the slightest supervision; auditing accounts, making an occasional
trip of inspection. Affairs would quite well have gone on without them;
though they would have disbelieved and resented that statement.

The great central offices in San Francisco were very busy--all but the
inner rooms where stood the partners' desks. One day Cathcart lit