notice, McGraw."

"It's quite a chunk of cash to have on hand, I'll admit. How much can you give me?"

"Five hundred thousand, and even then I'll have to overdraw my accounts with three banks."

"I wish my credit was as good as yours, Carey. Your banks will stand for the overdraft, of course. You'll have to arrange it some other way if they will not."

"I can't give you a cent over half a million to-day, no matter what you do" pleaded Carey piteously, and Bob realized that he was speaking the truth.

"Do not worry, Carey," he replied, "we're going to do business without getting nasty with each other. I'll take your promissory note, at seven per cent, and you can secure me with a little mortgage on your Spring-street-business block. It's worth a million and a half. I am not so unreasonable as to imagine even a rich man like you can produce a million dollars cash on such notice, so during the past week I took the liberty of having the t.i.tle searched and an instrument of first mortgage drawn up by myself. All we have to do is to insert the figures and then you can sign it. I understand you have a notary within hailing distance.

Your own thoughtfulness in having this transfer of my water right ready for my signature suggested this course to me. It occurred to me that I could sell this mortgage to any Los Angeles bank."

Carey covered his face with his hands and quivered.

"What bank do you antic.i.p.ate selling it to?" he mumbled presently.

"I didn't have any particular choice. If you have enemies I will not sell you into their hands, and you can make the mortgage for as long a period as you please, up to three years. Give me a list of banks to keep away from. I don't want to hurt you unnecessarily, I a.s.sure you."

"Thank you, McGraw" quavered his victim. "If you'll let me sit at my desk I'll draw those checks."

"Certainly. Only I want the checks certified, Carey. You understand, of course, that I shall not surrender the evidence I have against you until those checks are paid. I will not risk your telephoning the banks, the moment I leave your office, telling them the checks were secured by force and threats of bodily harm, and for them to decline payment."

Carey wrote the checks, called in a clerk and instructed him to take them to the various banks and arrange for the overdraft and certification--a comparatively easy task, since Carey was a heavy stockholder in all three banks. Within half an hour, while Bob and Carey sat glaring at each other, the checks were returned, and Carey handed them to Bob, who examined them and found them correct. The mortgage was next filled out, the notary called in, and Carey signed and swore to his signature.

"Now, in order to be perfectly legal about this matter, Carey," began Bob, when the notary had departed, "we should show some consideration for all this money. I have here the papers showing I have filed on twenty acres of a mining claim. It's just twenty acres of the Mojave desert, near San Pasqual, and I do not know that it contains a speck of valuable mineral, but that is neither here nor there. I staked it as a mining claim and christened it the Baby Mine."

Here a slight smile flickered across the young Desert Rat's face, as if some very pleasant thought had preceded it. He continued:

"I have had my signature to this deed to the Baby Mine attested before a notary a few minutes prior to my arrival in your office." He handed the doc.u.ment to T. Morgan Carey. "Here's your mine, Carey. I've sold it to you for a million dollars, and unless you spend one hundred dollars a year in a.s.sessment work, the t.i.tle to this million-dollar property will lapse. I wish you luck with your bargain. I shall expect you to record this deed within three days, and that will block any come-back you may start figuring on. If you fail to record this deed I shall construe your act as a breach of faith, return to you all but the five hundred thousand dollars which belongs to my wife, and then proceed to make things disagreeable for you. Remember, Carey, I'm your attorney and you should be guided by my advice."

Carey's face was livid with rage and hatred. "And in addition, I suppose I'm to forget that you're a stage robber, eh?" He reached for the telephone. "By the G.o.ds, McGraw, I'll take a chance with you after all.

I'm going to fight you."

Bob McGraw drew a large envelope from his pocket. "You may read what this envelope contains while waiting for central to answer your call"

he said gently. "I snipped the wires while you were hiding your face in your hands, wondering what you were going to do. These papers are merely a few affidavits, proving an absolute alibi in the matter of that Garlock robbery. I was eating frijoles and flapjacks with three prospectors about fifteen miles south of Olancho at the time this stage was held up, and I was in Keeler the following morning. This doc.u.ment contains a statement of the most amazing case of circ.u.mstantial evidence you ever heard of. Its author is the chief of Wells Fargo and besides, I have queer ideas on the subject of punishment for crime. Crime, Mr. Carey, is a great deal like our other human ailments, such as the chicken-pox and tonsilitis. We must bear with it and try to cure it by gentle care and scientific treatment. Prison cells have never cured a criminal, and it would only pain me to see you behind the bars in your old age. And I am certain that my wife would not rejoice at the news of your hanging."

"I suppose money has nothing to do with the celerity with which you hasten to compound a felony, eh?" sneered Carey.

"You unfortunate man! Carey, my late friend, Mr. Hennage, used to say that it was good policy to overlook a losing bet once in a while, rather than copper everything in sight. Your crime was a terrible mistake, Carey. For twenty years you've realized that and you've suffered for it.

I'm sorry for you--so sorry that I'm going to use your ill-gotten gains for a good purpose. Come up into Owens valley three years from now and I'll prove it to you. Good-day."

"One moment, McGraw. Don't go for a minute or two. I--I'd like to believe that what you say is true, but the trouble is--you see, McGraw, I have never encountered your point of view heretofore. Tell me, McGraw--don't lie to me--do you feel the slightest desire to see me suffer, or is this--er--brotherly-love talk of yours plain buncombe?"

Bob McGraw advanced toward the man he had beaten. He held out his hand.

"I try to be a man" he said--"to be too big to hate and put myself on a level with a brute. Won't you shake hands with me?"

Carey regarded him with frank curiosity.

"Say" he said, "are you religious?"

"No. Only human."

"Perhaps" said Carey dubiously, "but it doesn't seem possible that I should meet two white men in this n.i.g.g.e.r world. I think the species became extinct with the death of my friend Hennage."

"_Your_ friend--"

"Why not? He liked me--I know he did. And I liked him. I'm glad he's dead--no, I'm not--I was glad an hour ago, but I'm sorry now. Had he lived I would have made of him my friend, for he was the only human being I have ever met that I could trust implicitly. He was your partner and he warned me to keep off. He meant it, and I knew he meant it--so I stayed off. Do you think, McGraw, that I would have let you beat me out of that land if it hadn't been for Hennage? I didn't dare rush those selections through for patent until he was dead--and then it was too late. Had you left your affairs in any other hands I would have crushed you, but Hennage could not be bought. I didn't even try. He was above a price."

"Is that why you failed to act immediately after you became convinced that I was an outlaw and would not dare claim the land when it should be granted to my clients?" demanded Bob.

Carey nodded. "I met Hennage in Bakersfield, and he told me to keep my hands off those applications."

"Then he bluffed you, Mr. Carey. Harley P. Hennage was my friend, but not my partner. He did not have five cents invested in my scheme. I never mentioned it to him, and neither did my wife. His threat was a bluff, and where he got his information of my land deal is a mystery, the solution of which perished with Harley P."

Carey sat in his chair, with his head bowed. He was clasping and unclasping his fingers in a manner pathetically suggestive of helplessness.

"I don't understand" he mumbled. "He told me to keep off and I kept off." He sighed. "I'd have given a million dollars for a friend like him. I--I--never--had--one."

Bob McGraw drew T. Morgan Carey's mortgage from his pocket, scratched a match on his trouser-leg and held it under the fluttering leaves. Slowly the little flame mounted, and when it threatened to scorch his fingers the promoter of Donnaville tossed the blazing fragments into a convenient cuspidor. He looked up and saw Carey regarding him curiously.

"That was your mortgage" the land-grabber said wonderingly. "You have burned half a million dollars."

"I was selling you my friendship--at cut rates, Mr. Carey. I was worthy of Hennage's trust and friendship until a few minutes ago. Harley P.

Hennage never did a mean or a cowardly act, and to-day I used my power over you to extort half a million dollars from you to further a scheme of mine. I figured that the end justified the means. It did not, and I ask you to forgive me."

Carey smiled wanly. "It's up-hill work, McGraw, but I'll forgive you.

What great scheme is this of yours that caused you to appear unworthy of the friend who was so worthy of you? I have a great curiosity to understand you. Who knows? Perhaps I may end up by liking you?"

And then Bob McGraw sat down by his enemy and unfolded to him his dream of Donnaville.

"Think of it, Mr. Carey" he pleaded. "Think what my scheme means to the poor devils who haven't got our brains and power! Think of the women and little children toiling in sweat-shops; of the families without money, without hope, without food and without coal, facing the winter in such cities as Chicago and New York, while a barren empire, which you and I can transform to an Eden, waits for them there in the north," and he waved his arm toward Donnaville.

"There's glory enough for us all, Mr. Carey. Won't you come in with me and play the big game? Be my backer in this enterprise and let the future wipe out the mistakes of the past. You've got a chance, Carey.

What need have you for money? It's only a game you're playing, man--a game that fascinates you. You've sold your manhood for money--and you have never had a friend! Good G.o.d, what a tragedy! Come with me, Carey, into Owens valley, and be a builder of empire. Let your dead past bury itself and start fresh again. You are not a young man any longer, and in all your busy life you have accomplished nothing of benefit to the world. You have subscribed to charities, and then robbed the objects of your charity of the land that would have made them independent of you.

Think of the good you can do with the proceeds of the evil you have done! Ah, Carey, Carey! There's so much fun in just living, and I'm afraid you've never been young. You've never dreamed! And you've never had a friend that loved you for what you were. Do you know why, Carey?

Because you weren't worth loving. You have received from the world to date just what you put into it--envy and greed and hate and malice and selfishness, and at your pa.s.sing the curses of your people will be your portion. Come with me and be a Pagan, my friend, and when you have finished the job I'll guarantee to plant you up on the slope of Kearsarge, where your soul, as it mounts to the G.o.d of a Square Deal, can look down on the valley that you have prepared for a happy people, and say: 'That is mine. I helped create it, and I did it for love. I finished what the Almighty commenced, and the job was worth while.'

Will you play the game with me, T. Morgan Carey, and get some joy out of life?"

The land-grabber--the parasite who had lived only to destroy--looked up at Bob McGraw.

"Would you trust me?" he queried huskily.

"I burned your mortgage" said Bob smiling.

"I'll think it over--friend" Carey replied. "I never do things in a hurry. It's a habit I have, and I don't quite understand you. I must think it over."

"Do, Mr. Carey. And now I must toddle along. _Adios._"

Carey shook his hand, and they parted.