them," the rancher said. "Let's get down to business. How much are
you asking, no cure no pay, I finding tools and material? I want your
bottom price straight away."

Thurston had never done business in so summary a fashion before, but he
could adapt himself to circumstances, and he mentioned a moderate sum
forthwith.

"Can't come down?--then it's a deal!" Bransome announced.
"Contract--this is the Pacific slope, and we've no time for such
foolery. I'm figuring that I can trust you, and my word's good enough
in this locality. Run that pond down a fathom and you'll get your
money. Any particular reason why you shouldn't start in to-day? Don't
know of any? Then put that pipe in your pocket, and we'll strike out
for the store at the settlement now."

So it came about that at sunset Geoffrey was deposited with several
bags of provisions, a blanket, and a litter of tools, outside a ruined
shack on the edge of the natural prairie surrounding Bransome's lake.
He had elected to live beside his work.

A tall forest of tremendous growth walled the lake, and then for a
space rotting trees and willow swale showed where the intermittent rise
of waters had set a limit to the all-encroaching bush. The wail of a
loon rang eerily out of the shadow, and was answered by the howl of a
distant wolf. A thin silver crescent sailed clear of the fretted
minarets of towering firs clear cut against a pale pearl of the sky.

"Carlton's prairie, we call it," said Bransome, leaning against his
light wagon, which stood, near the deserted dwelling. "Land which
isn't all rock or forest is mighty scarce, and Carlton figured he'd
done great things when he bought this place. Five years he tried to
drain it, working night and day, and pouring good money into it, and
five times the freshets washed out his crops for him. The creek just
laughed at his ditches. Then when he'd no more money he went out to
help track-laying, and a big tree flattened him. The boys said he
didn't seem very sorry. This prairie had broken his heart for him, and
I've heard the Siwash say he still comes back and digs at nights when
the moon is full."

"Carlton made a mistake," said Geoffrey, who had been examining the
surroundings rather than listening to the tale. "He began in what
looked the easiest and was the hardest way. He should have cut the
mother rock instead of trenching the forest." When Bransome drove away
Thurston rolled himself in the thick br