ired.

"Quite out of the question."

Nasmyth smiled. "That," he remarked, "is in one sense a pity, as I
couldn't repeat it to-day. If we are to do business together, I should
have to ask you for a considerably larger share of the profit. In
fact, I was wondering if you could see your way to offer half as much
again."

Hutton gazed at him with sardonic amusement. "Oh," he replied, "has
somebody left you a fortune, or are they going to run a railroad
through that valley?"

Nasmyth sat silent a moment or two, and it happened that his easy
indifference served him tolerably well. Had he been a keener man, the
anxiety to get about his work in the canyon, of which he was certainly
sensible, might have led to his undoing; but he was not one who often
erred through undue precipitancy. The waiting fight was, perhaps, the
one for which he was particularly adapted. If anything, he was rather
too much addicted to holding out his hand, and he realized that it
behooves the man without capital to be particularly wary in his
negotiations with the one in possession of money. His recent interview
with Violet Hamilton also had a stirring effect on him, and now he sat
quietly prepared to hold his own.

"No," he declared, "there has been no particular change in my affairs.
I have only been thinking things over, and it seems to me I ought to
get the terms I mentioned."

"Then you had better try. It won't be from any of the accredited land
agencies."

Nasmyth noticed the faint ring in his companion's voice. This, it
seemed to him, was not bluff. The man, he believed, meant what he
said.

"You seem quite sure of it," he observed.

As a matter of fact, Hutton was, but he felt annoyed with himself.

"Well," he said, "I naturally know what they would think of any
proposition like the one you made me. Anyway, as I suggested, all you
have to do is to try them."

Again Nasmyth, conscious that his companion was unobtrusively
watching him, sat silent a moment or two. He knew that if he broke
with Hutton he might have considerable difficulty in raising the money
he required from any corporation interested in such matters in that
city; but he had also another plan in his mind. He was far from sure
that the scheme would prove successful, and it was at least certain
that it would cost him a good deal of trouble to carry it out.

"Then I don't think I need keep you any longer," he told Hutton after
a long pause. "I'll leave the thing over f