queer smile at the judge,
"I quite agree with you that the prospect isn't cheering. But so long as
the condition is such as it is there is no need to grumble. I didn't
come out here expecting to fall into a bed of roses."

"Then you won't be disappointed," returned the judge dryly. He filled
and lighted a pipe, smoking meditatively, his eyes on the younger man
with a curious expression. He had determined to push the test a little
farther.

"You could probably sell the Circle Bar," he said finally. "Your father
told me before he died that he had been offered ten dollars an acre for
his land. That would total to a tidy sum."

Hollis looked quickly at the judge, his eyes flashing with grim
amusement. "Would you advise me to sell?" he questioned.

The judge laughed quietly. "That is an unfair question," he equivocated,
narrowing his eyes whimsically. "If I were heir to the property and felt
that I did not care to assume the danger of managing it I should sell,
without doubt. If, on the other hand, I had decided to continue my
father's fight against an unscrupulous company, I would stay no matter
what the consequences. But"--He puffed slowly at his pipe, his voice
filling with unmistakable sarcasm--"it would be so much easier to sell
and return at once to a more peaceful atmosphere. With ten thousand
dollars you could go back East and go on with your newspaper work, well
equipped, with a chance of realizing your ambition--and not be troubled
with continuing a fight in which, no doubt, there would be many blows to
be taken."

"Thank you," returned Hollis quietly. He looked steadily into the
judge's eyes, his own glinting with a grim humor. "You have succeeded in
making it very plain," he continued slowly. "But I am not going to
run--I have decided on that. Of course I feel properly resentful over
the way my father has been treated by this man Dunlavey and his
association." His eyes flashed with a peculiar hardness. "And I would
stay here and fight Dunlavey and his parcel of ruffians if for no other
reason than to secure revenge on personal grounds.

"But there is one other reason. There is a principle at stake. I don't
care very much about the personal side of the question; little as I knew
my father, I believe he would have ignored personalities were he
confronted with the condition that confronts me. It is my belief that as
an American citizen he chafed under conditions that prevented him from
enjoying that freedom t