of-doors man eyed each
other in silence while one might count ten. In the last words the
railway's policy had been laid down, an issue defined, a challenge
given.

Casey Dunne's eyes narrowed a little, and his mouth tightened. He spoke
very quietly, but it was the exercised quiet of self-restraint:

"I had hoped that you would not take that ground, Mr. York. Let me show
you how this concerns myself and others. Take my own case: I have a
ranch down there; I have my water record. I have gone on working the
ranch, making improvements from year to year, and every dollar I could
scrape up I put into more land. I wasn't speculating. I can gamble with
any man when I have to; but this wasn't gambling. There was the land,
and there was the water. The increase of value was merely a question of
time. Others bought as I bought. We put our money and our years of work
into lands along the Coldstream. Our whole stake is there. I want you
to appreciate that--to get our viewpoint--because with us this isn't a
question of greater or less profit, but a question of existence itself.
If you take away our water our lands are worthless, and we go broke. I
can't put it any plainer than that."

"And without water," said York, "the railway's lands are worthless--or
so I am told. The unfortunate feature, according to what you say, seems
to be that there is not water enough for you and for us. Therefore each
must stand upon his legal rights."

"You raise the point," said Dunne. "It is a question of legal and moral
right against what I think--and I don't want to be offensive--but what
I think is an attempt to read into a clause of an old charter a meaning
which it was never intended to carry."

York's eyebrows drew down. "The clause in the Prairie Southern's
charter to which I presume you refer is perfectly clear. It states that
the railway company may take from the Coldstream or any other running
stream 'sufficient water for its own purposes.' Those are the exact
words of the charter. It saves existing rights, but there were none
then existing. Therefore the railway's right is first, and all water
records are subject to it. The charter further empowers the company to
improve, buy, sell, and deal in land. These, then, are purposes of the
company, according to its charter, and for these purposes it may
construct and maintain all necessary works. Could anything be clearer?
We acquired every right that Prairie Southern possessed. The rights
were