shareholders to increase
the value of those lands if I can do so legally."

"I wish I could get your viewpoint," said Casey Dunne, and for the
first time his voice lost a shade of its calm and began to vibrate with
anger. "I'd like to know just how much it differs from a claim jumper's
or a burglar's. You know as well as I do that you have no earthly right
to take that water. You know you are taking advantage of the careless
wording of an old charter. You know that it means the utter ruin of men
who went into a God-forsaken land without a dollar, and took a brown,
parched wilderness by the throat, and fought it to a standstill--men
who backed their faith in the country with years of toil and privation,
who made the trails and dug the ditches, and proved the land. And you
have the colossal nerve to set a little additional dividend on watered
stock against the homes of those men--old, some of them, now--and the
rights of their wives and children to the fruits of their work!"

The railway man surveyed him with quiet amusement. To him this
resembled the vicarious indignation of a very young country lawyer at a
client's wrongs.

"Are you," he asked, with quiet sarcasm, "one of those who made the
trails and dug the ditches and endured the privations? If so, they seem
to have agreed with you."

Casey Dunne's blue eyes narrowed, and his voice fell to a level. He
leaned forward across the desk with an ugly set to his jaw.

"If you want to know just how strong I'm in on this I'll tell you," he
snapped. "I'm thirty-four years old. I've made my own living since I
was fifteen. I've roughed it because I had to, and I've gone low enough
at times. I've starved and blistered and frozen in places you never
heard of; and out of it all I got together a little stake. I put that
into Coldstream land. Do you think I'm going to let you take it without
a fight? I'm _not_."

York, who never let go himself, drummed on his desk thoughtfully. This
was a sentiment he understood and appreciated. A fighter, he recognized
a kindred spirit. Also if this man were influential, as appeared
likely, among the Coldstream ranchers, it might be well to make terms
with him.

"You haven't a chance," he said. "I'll be quite frank with you. We have
the best legal advice, and our position is quite unassailable. Even if
it were not, we could appeal you into bankruptcy. Still, though I don't
admit that you have the least claim on us, we might possibly buy in