ly bowed silently. The man continued:

"The wonderful rarity of our atmosphere in these altitudes is
something that has to be experienced in order to be thoroughly
understood and appreciated, or even believed. You tell an eastern man
of the great distances here at which you can see and hear, clearly and
readily; he will immediately doubt your veracity, simply because it is
without the line of his experience. Now I myself, personally, with my
own, unaided vision, have been able to count the mules in a pack-train
sixty-three miles distant, and have repeatedly held conversations at
a distance of fifteen miles."

"Guess the conversation was pretty much all on one side, wasn't it?"
asked Rutherford, adding sotto voce to Houston, "as on the present
occasion."

"Ah, no, indeed not," the man replied; "I see, my young friend, that
you are inclined, like all strangers, to be a little incredulous and
skeptical, but if you remain in this country of ours any length of
time, that will soon pass away, very soon."

"I don't think I care to remain here very long then, if it will have
any such effect on my brain as that," said Rutherford.

"You are inclined to be facetious, my friend; that is all right, I
appreciate a little witticism myself occasionally. By the way," he
continued, evidently determined to get into conversation with Houston,
"I suppose you young gentlemen are out here on business, looking for
valuable investments in this wonderful country."

At the word "Business" Mr. Rutherford instantly assumed his dignity,
dropping into the slightly drawling tone he always used on such
occasions, and which he intended as an extinguisher on any person whom
he deemed too familiar.

"Well, no," he replied, twirling an incipient mustache, "at least, not
so far as I am concerned; I am just out on a sort of an extended
pleasure trip, you know."

"Ah, your friend is a business man, I judge; perhaps," turning to
Houston, "we can interest you in some of our rare bargains in the line
of real estate, improved or unimproved, city or country; or possibly
in our mines, gold or silver properties, quartz or placer, we have
them all."

"You seem to have a 'corner' on this part of the northwest?" remarked
Rutherford, rather sarcastically.

"Indeed, young man, we have a good many 'corners,' pretty valuable
ones, too," the man replied imperturbably, still watching Houston, who
replied in a courteous but indifferent tone:

"I am out here on