r his own immediate supervision, the seed had already been graded
and selected.

It was Harran's intention to commence blue-stoning his seed that day, a
delicate and important process which prevented rust and smut appearing
in the crop when the wheat should come up. But, furthermore, he wanted
to find time to go to Guadalajara to meet the Governor on the morning
train. His day promised to be busy.

But as Harran was finishing his last cup of coffee, Phelps, the foreman
on the Home ranch, who also looked after the storage barns where the
seed was kept, presented himself, cap in hand, on the back porch by the
kitchen door.

"I thought I'd speak to you about the seed from Four, sir," he said.
"That hasn't been brought in yet."

Harran nodded.

"I'll see about it. You've got all the blue-stone you want, have you,
Phelps?" and without waiting for an answer he added, "Tell the stableman
I shall want the team about nine o'clock to go to Guadalajara. Put them
in the buggy. The bays, you understand." When the other had gone,
Harran drank off the rest of his coffee, and, rising, passed through the
dining-room and across a stone-paved hallway with a glass roof into the
office just beyond.

The office was the nerve-centre of the entire ten thousand acres of
Los Muertos, but its appearance and furnishings were not in the least
suggestive of a farm. It was divided at about its middle by a wire
railing, painted green and gold, and behind this railing were the
high desks where the books were kept, the safe, the letter-press and
letter-files, and Harran's typewriting machine. A great map of Los
Muertos with every water-course, depression, and elevation, together
with indications of the varying depths of the clays and loams in the
soil, accurately plotted, hung against the wall between the windows,
while near at hand by the safe was the telephone.

But, no doubt, the most significant object in the office was the
ticker. This was an innovation in the San Joaquin, an idea of shrewd,
quick-witted young Annixter, which Harran and Magnus Derrick had been
quick to adopt, and after them Broderson and Osterman, and many others
of the wheat growers of the county. The offices of the ranches were
thus connected by wire with San Francisco, and through that city with
Minneapolis, Duluth, Chicago, New York, and at last, and most important
of all, with Liverpool. Fluctuations in the price of the world's crop
during and after the harvest thrill