off her
hands at cost, plus whatever she had spent on improvements, providing
these were not too expensive. I can do that now, but I can't pay for
more improvements, because I am not a rich man, and I can't keep the
offer open indefinitely. She must make her choice now. And so, as she
seems to rely on your opinion, I come to you. I hope you will persuade
her to take my offer and give up the absurd idea of ranching."

Angus thought as rapidly as he could.

"She told me you wanted to buy the place for Blake."

French gave him a swift, keen glance of scrutiny.

"And you didn't believe it?"

"No," Angus admitted, "I didn't."

French laughed. "And not believing it you drew the natural conclusion
that I had some other motive. Well, I will be quite frank with you: If I
had said I wanted to buy merely to take the property off her hands she
would not have allowed me to do it. But what I said about Blake is
partly true. I don't know that he himself wants to ranch--but I want him
to settle down. So that is the situation."

Once more Angus did some swift thinking.

"I don't know what to say about it," he admitted frankly.

French's eyes narrowed a trifle in suspicion.

"Do you think she can succeed--make the ranch pay eventually?"

"No."

"Do you think the land is worth more than I have offered?"

"I don't know why it should be."

"Then why not advise her to get rid of it?"

"Because," Angus told him, "there are some things I don't understand at
all."

"For instance?"

"Well, in the first place the price her father paid was much more than
the land was worth at the time."

"Doesn't that make my offer all the fairer?"

"I don't understand how it was paid at all. The land wasn't worth half
of it then."

"That is a matter of opinion."

"There is no opinion about it. It's a matter of fact. Just as good land
could have been bought for two or three dollars an acre. And yet you
invested Winton's money in this at ten dollars."

"Excuse me, but I did nothing of the sort. Winton had seen the land,
wanted it, and was looking for something to hold for years. As a matter
of fact, I advised him not to buy, because I considered the land too far
back to be readily salable if he ever wished to dispose of it. But he
instructed me to buy at the price at which it was held. I can show you
his letter to that effect."

As this was entirely different from Faith's version, Angus was taken
aback. "But," he said, "last fall Brad