ou to know that while some people suspect you
and some suspect Leland we are going ahead and getting the cards into
our own hands. And I wanted to ask you what you thought of that mining
proposition on the old McIntosh property? It's adjacent to yours,
isn't it? Just the other side of Laughter Lake?"

"The McIntosh property, yes. The ridge rising on the other side of the
lake is my boundary line. I hadn't heard of any mining being done
there."

"No? Well, it seems a mining concern has found something. At any rate
men are at work, a tunnel has been driven into the base of the ridge,
and--I wonder what would happen if a charge of dynamite went off in due
time and blew a hole right through, into the lake?"

"Good heaven!" cried Shandon angrily. "You mean that Hume and Leland
are actually trying to steal my water?"

"I don't think Leland is in on this," replied Kinsell quietly. "He
doesn't seem to me to be _quite_ the crook Hume is."

"But," muttered Shandon, "if they once tear the side of that mountain
out--"

"The milk will be spilt so badly that it cannot be put back into the
pan? And the mining company, a Chicago firm, I believe, at any rate a
crowd of men hired by a Chicago man, will claim that they were on their
territory all of the time; that not one of their men, but some man
hired by you, put in the charges that did the damage. It's a bold
play, but then when it's make or break with a man he hasn't much
picking and choosing to do."

"It won't take me long to get there," said Shandon grimly. "And I'm
getting tired of this thing."

"But, surely," smiled Kinsell, "you don't object to having Hume pay for
a part of the work you'll have to do soon or late, do you? Let him go
ahead. Just before they get ready to do the real damage, we'll slap a
little injunction on them."

"But how will we know?"

"That's all right. One of their foremen is drawing wages from you
right now. You'll find a lot of interesting things in the expense
account I put in, Mr. Shandon."

CHAPTER XXV

RED RECKLESS ON LITTLE SAXON

"I tell you, Hume, I don't like it. It's a piece of damned highway
robbery and I'm rotten sorry I ever got mixed up in it."

Charlie Granger, stake holder of ten thousand dollars, cut viciously at
the June grass with his riding quirt and snapped his words out bluntly
as he came striding up to Hume. The latter stood, booted and spurred,
among a group of men who had travelled across t