if there were any other special instructions.

"Nothing specific," was the reply. "Bromley has kept things moving, but
they can be made to move faster, and we believe you are the man to set
the pace, Mr. Ballard; that's all. And now, if you are ready, we have
fifteen minutes in which to catch the Alta Vista train--plenty of time,
but none to throw away. I have reserved your sleeper."

It was not until after the returning automobile spin; after Ballard had
checked his baggage and had given his recovered suit-cases to the porter
of the Alta Vista car; that he learned the significance of the fighting
clause in the president's Boston telegram.

They were standing at the steps of the Pullman for the final word; had
drawn aside to make room for a large party of still later comers; when
the president said, with the air of one who gathers up the unconsidered
trifles:

"By the way, Mr. Ballard, you may not find it all plain sailing up
yonder. Arcadia Park has been for twenty years a vast cattle-ranch,
owned, or rather usurped, by a singular old fellow who is known as the
'King of Arcadia.' Quite naturally, he opposes our plan of turning the
park into a well-settled agricultural field, to the detriment of his
free cattle range, and he is fighting us."

"In the courts, you mean?"

"In the courts and out of them. I might mention that it was one of his
cow-men who killed Sanderson; though that was purely a personal quarrel,
I believe. The trouble began with his refusal to sell us a few acres of
land and a worthless mining-claim which our reservoir may submerge, and
we were obliged to resort to the courts. He is fighting for delay now,
and in the meantime he encourages his cow-boys to maintain a sort of
guerrilla warfare on the contractors: stealing tools, disabling
machinery, and that sort of thing. This was Macpherson's story, and I'm
passing it on to you. You are forty miles from the nearest sheriff's
office over there; but when you need help, you'll get it. Of course, the
company will back you--to the last dollar in the treasury, if
necessary."

Ballard's rejoinder was placatory. "It seems a pity to open up the new
country with a feud," he said, thinking of his native State and of what
these little wars had done for some portions of it. "Can't the old
fellow be conciliated in some way?"

"I don't know," replied the president doubtfully. "We want peaceable
possession, of course, if we can get it; capital is always on the