ngs. A prominent attorney came all the way from a town in the
northern part of the State to lay before him a proposition of this kind.
This lawyer, named Cooley, explained that by opening a store in a certain
rich section of valley land, opportunities could be created for lending
the Mexicans money. Whenever there was a birth, a funeral or a marriage
among them, the Mexicans needed money, and could be persuaded to sign
mortgages, which they generally could not read. In each Mexican family
there would be either a birth, a marriage or a death once in three years
on an average. Three such events would enable the lender to gain
possession of a ranch. And Cooley had an eastern client who would then buy
the land at a good figure. It was a chance for Ramon to double his money.

"You've got the money and you know the native people," Cooley argued
earnestly. "I've got the sucker and I know the law. It's a sure thing."

Ramon thanked him politely and refused firmly. The idea of robbing a poor
Mexican of his ranch by nine years of usury did not appeal to him at all.
In the first place, it would be a long, slow tedious job, and besides,
poor people always aroused his pity, just as rich ones stirred his greed
and envy. He was predatory, but lion-like, he scorned to spring on small
game. He did not realize that a lion often starves where a jackal grows
fat.

Only one opportunity came to him which interested him strongly. A young
Irishman named Hurley explained to him that it was possible to buy mules
in Mexico, where a revolution was going on, for ten dollars each at
considerable personal risk, to run them across the Rio Grande and to sell
them to the United States army for twenty dollars. Here was a gambler's
chance, action and adventure. It caught his fancy and tempted him. But he
had no thought of yielding. Another purpose engrossed him.

These weeks after his uncle's funeral gave him his first real grapple with
the world of business, and the experience tended to strengthen him in a
certain cynical self-assurance which had been growing in him ever since he
first went away to college, and had met its first test in action when he
spoke the words that lead to the Don's death. He felt a deep contempt for
most of these men who came to him with their schemes and their wares. He
saw that most of them were ready enough to swindle him, though few of them
would have had the courage to rob him with a gun. Probably not one of them
would hav