ases,
cross-harrowed as well. The labour of putting in the vast crop was
over. Now there was nothing to do but wait, while the seed silently
germinated; nothing to do but watch for the wheat to come up.

When Annixter reached the ranch house of Los Muertos, under the shade
of the cypress and eucalyptus trees, he found Mrs. Derrick on the porch,
seated in a long wicker chair. She had been washing her hair, and the
light brown locks that yet retained so much of their brightness, were
carefully spread in the sun over the back of her chair. Annixter could
not but remark that, spite of her more than fifty years, Annie Derrick
was yet rather pretty. Her eyes were still those of a young girl, just
touched with an uncertain expression of innocence and inquiry, but as
her glance fell upon him, he found that that expression changed to one
of uneasiness, of distrust, almost of aversion.

The night before this, after Magnus and his wife had gone to bed, they
had lain awake for hours, staring up into the dark, talking, talking.
Magnus had not long been able to keep from his wife the news of the
coalition that was forming against the railroad, nor the fact that this
coalition was determined to gain its ends by any means at its command.
He had told her of Osterman's scheme of a fraudulent election to seat a
Board of Railroad Commissioners, who should be nominees of the farming
interests. Magnus and his wife had talked this matter over and over
again; and the same discussion, begun immediately after supper the
evening before, had lasted till far into the night.

At once, Annie Derrick had been seized with a sudden terror lest Magnus,
after all, should allow himself to be persuaded; should yield to the
pressure that was every day growing stronger. None better than she knew
the iron integrity of her husband's character. None better than she
remembered how his dearest ambition, that of political preferment, had
been thwarted by his refusal to truckle, to connive, to compromise with
his ideas of right. Now, at last, there seemed to be a change. Long
continued oppression, petty tyranny, injustice and extortion had driven
him to exasperation. S. Behrman's insults still rankled. He seemed
nearly ready to countenance Osterman's scheme. The very fact that he
was willing to talk of it to her so often and at such great length, was
proof positive that it occupied his mind. The pity of it, the tragedy
of it! He, Magnus, the "Governor," who had be