realty, or a
shortage of money, and the banks shut down and the money-lenders
started to draw in their capital, there would be a veritable
stampede.

"I give it a year, boy; then, if we've got the money, that's the time
to put it in, for, a few years more and all these baby orchards about
the Valley will be paying for themselves over and over again.

"Half of the ranchers in the meantime are going to get cold feet,
because they won't be able to get their stuff to the paying markets,
while, if they only organised--as they undoubtedly will do later--they
could get their fruit anywhere and at a big price, too.

"But--that's where we can get in."

And as Jim went off, Phil sat for a while thinking--a dreamer and a
visionary--until he was jolted out of his reverie by the pressing
inquiries of his recently augmented staff.

One day the inevitable, according to Jim's notion of things, happened.
A letter arrived, bearing the heading of Langford & Macdonald,
Solicitors and Attorneys, Princes Street, Edinburgh, making inquiry as
to the possibility of placing trust funds on gild-edged first mortgage
security, requesting bank references and inviting correspondence from
the Langford-Ralston Financial Corporation.

The letter was straight business. There were no paternal greetings;
not a word to suggest that either Langford had ever known of the
other's existence.

Jim, with his usual long-headedness, insisted on Phil replying to it
and signing it on behalf of the firm.

Phil demurred.

"Why, man alive!--give me credit for knowing my own father. Do you
suppose he doesn't know all about us already?--more than we know
ourselves. Just go ahead and answer that. Doing it that way will
humour him.

"It is by far the biggest thing we have landed yet. Unlimited capital
to lend on good security is a grand foundation for a Financial
Corporation. But we have to see that everything is absolutely
right--absolutely straight--absolutely secure. One mistake with
Langford & Macdonald and that's the end of it."

And the banks knew of the stabilising of the Langford-Ralston Company
almost before the L. R. Company realised it themselves, and they vied
with one another for the privilege of handling their bank account,
putting inquiring clients in touch with them direct as a sop for
future business. What the banks did became the fashion in town. And in
such days as the West was then passing through, that meant much
indeed, for everyone wa