ocation in a mine of Clarence's, now worth a million, because it was
not "his style." But the land speculation in a country of unsettled
titles and lawless men, he need not remind them, required some
experience of border warfare. He would not say positively, although he
left them to draw their own conclusions with gloomy significance, that
this was why Clarence had sought him. With this dark suggestion, he took
leave of Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins and their daughter Phoebe the next day,
not without some natural human emotion, and peacefully drove his team
and wagon into the settlement of Fair Plains.

He was not prepared, however, for a sudden realization of his
imaginative prospects. A few days after his arrival in Fair Plains,
he received a letter from Clarence, explaining that he had not time to
return to Hooker to consult him, but had, nevertheless, fulfilled his
promise, by taking advantage of an opportunity of purchasing the Spanish
"Sisters'" title to certain unoccupied lands near the settlement. As
these lands in part joined the section already preempted and occupied by
Hopkins, Clarence thought that Jim Hooker would choose that part for the
sake of his neighbor's company. He inclosed a draft on San Francisco,
for a sum sufficient to enable Jim to put up a cabin and "stock" the
property, which he begged he would consider in the light of a loan, to
be paid back in installments, only when the property could afford it.
At the same time, if Jim was in difficulty, he was to inform him. The
letter closed with a characteristic Clarence-like mingling of enthusiasm
and older wisdom. "I wish you luck, Jim, but I see no reason why you
should trust to it. I don't know of anything that could keep you from
making yourself independent of any one, if you go to work with a LONG
AIM and don't fritter away your chances on short ones. If I were you,
old fellow, I'd drop the Plains and the Indians out of my thoughts, or
at least out of my TALK, for a while; they won't help you in the long
run. The people who believe you will be jealous of you; those who don't,
will look down upon you, and if they get to questioning your little
Indian romances, Jim, they'll be apt to question your civilized facts.
That won't help you in the ranching business and that's your only real
grip now." For the space of two or three hours after this, Jim was
reasonably grateful and even subdued,--so much so that his employer, to
whom he confided his good fortune, fra