the air, her back delicately arched. No doubt she thought it time
to settle herself for the night, and as Annixter gave no indication of
vacating his chair, she chose this way of cajoling him into ceding his
place to her. But Annixter was irritated at the Princess's attentions,
misunderstanding their motive.

"Get out!" he exclaimed, lifting his feet to the rung of the chair.
"Lord love me, but I sure do hate a cat."

"By the way," observed Osterman, "I passed Genslinger by the gate as I
came in to-night. Had he been here?"

"Yes, he was here," said Harran, "and--" but Annixter took the words out
of his mouth.

"He says there's some talk of the railroad selling us their sections
this winter."

"Oh, he did, did he?" exclaimed Osterman, interested at once. "Where did
he hear that?"

"Where does a railroad paper get its news? From the General Office, I
suppose."

"I hope he didn't get it straight from headquarters that the land was to
be graded at twenty dollars an acre," murmured Broderson.

"What's that?" demanded Osterman. "Twenty dollars! Here, put me on,
somebody. What's all up? What did Genslinger say?"

"Oh, you needn't get scared," said Annixter. "Genslinger don't know,
that's all. He thinks there was no understanding that the price of the
land should not be advanced when the P. and S. W. came to sell to us."

"Oh," muttered Osterman relieved. Magnus, who had gone out into the
office on the other side of the glass-roofed hallway, returned with a
long, yellow envelope in his hand, stuffed with newspaper clippings and
thin, closely printed pamphlets.

"Here is the circular," he remarked, drawing out one of the pamphlets.
"The conditions of settlement to which the railroad obligated itself are
very explicit."

He ran over the pages of the circular, then read aloud:

"'The Company invites settlers to go upon its lands before patents are
issued or the road is completed, and intends in such cases to sell to
them in preference to any other applicants and at a price based upon the
value of the land without improvements,' and on the other page here," he
remarked, "they refer to this again. 'In ascertaining the value of the
lands, any improvements that a settler or any other person may have on
the lands will not be taken into consideration, neither will the price
be increased in consequence thereof.... Settlers are thus insured that
in addition to being accorded the first privilege of purchase, at the
graded