y up about a hundred."

"What are they, Germans?"

"No, Swedes."

Moyese laughed. "Thrifty beggars will job round and earn double while
they're operating for us! Got good big families, Bat?"

It was the turn of the handy man to laugh. "I filed one fellow and
eight kids for one hundred and sixty acres each."

"You didn't contract to pay each of the little olive branches
three-hundred?"

"Lord, no! If the dad sits tight till we prove up entry, he's to get
three-hundred! No fear of his blabbing. He can't speak a word of
English; and when I told the woman, through the interpreter that we pay
their fare out and each of the kids would get a five, why, she kissed
my hand and slobbered gratitude all over me."

"Wayland won't be quite so grateful for that bunch."

"Oh, I didn't file that batch in the N. F. You bet, that's a little
too obvious! I put 'em in the Pass, lower end of the Pass, not by a
damn sight, I didn't put 'em in the N. F.! I thought Smelter people
wanted us to secure that Pass for a dam; and I bunched 'em all in just
above the Sheriff's place!"

"That's good! The Sheriff proves up this year; and if you get this
bunch in behind, that corks the Pass up pretty effectually! Where are
the bounds of the Forest there?"

Bat drew his fore-finger along the map. "Along the red line, here:
just to the trail through the canyon."

"Good: now what about the timber claim along the Gully? That's in the
Forests, Brydges. I want to force a contest on that; the Swede fellow
has cut the logs under his permit; but I'd like to make that doubly
sure before we go to trial. If we can get a double cinch on that,
we'll knock the claim of the Forestry Department to keep homesteaders
out into a cocked hat."

Bat's sleepy eyes emitted sparks and his good natured smile widened to
an open grin.

"The Swede happened to use a U. S. Forest hatchet when he cut those
logs," he said. "I told him to be sure and stamp the butt end of each
log U. S., duly inspected," he said.

Moyese dropped the map and the pencil and his heavy hand with a thud on
the desk and laughed noiselessly down into the creases of his fat
double chin and into the wrinkling rotundity of his white vest.

"And to cinch it," continued Brydges, "as the fellow's permit didn't
cover the Gully, I got some blanket railway scrip for an Irishman,
O'Finnigan, Shanty Town, and planked it on the Gully. You see,
Senator, by law the settlers _can_ go in on t