n other ranchers.

"Lawyer?" snapped York. The secretary thought not. "Show him in."

When Dunne entered York did not immediately look up from his papers.
This was for general effect. When he did look he became conscious that
even as he was measuring so was he being measured.

Casey Dunne carried an atmosphere of outdoors. From the deep tan of his
neck, against which the white of his collar lay in startling contrast,
to the slender, sinewy brown hands, he bore token of wind and sun and
activity in the open. His clothes were new, excellent in fit and
material; but, though he did not wear them awkwardly, one gathered the
impression that he was accustomed to easier, more informal garments.
His manner was entirely self-confident, and betrayed neither awe nor
embarrassment. Which gave York an unfavourable impression to start
with.

"Take a chair, Mr. Dunne," he said. "I can give you five minutes or
ten. Not more. What can I do for you?"

"I may have to ask you to stretch that time limit a little," said
Dunne, smiling as if York were an old friend. "Let me start at the
beginning, and then I won't have to go back. I live down on the
Coldstream, on the line of the old Prairie Southern, which you acquired
a couple of years ago. With it you got their land grant. Your land
department, after looking the Coldstream blocks over, decided to
irrigate and sell these lands; and they undertook a main ditch and a
system of ditches, and they are selling the lands at the present time."

"I know all this," said York impatiently. "Carrol runs our land
department, and he deals with these matters. He's the man you want to
see."

"He referred me to you," said Dunne. "I know this is ancient history,
but I'm cleaning up as I go along. You will get your water for these
lands from the Coldstream. I and others own property there, and we get
our water from the river below your intake. Are you aware that your
ditch system is capable of carrying, and that the lands you are selling
with a guarantee of an adequate water supply will require, _almost the
entire normal flow of the Coldstream_?"

"I have understood from our land department"--York chose his words
carefully--"that the river contains ample water to irrigate our lands."

"Which, I need scarcely point out, is not an answer to my question,"
Dunne commented quietly.

"But which," York countered, "is all that I am concerned with, Mr.
Dunne."

The railway man and the younger, bronzed out-