e!"

Roger was too stunned to grasp the true significance of the situation
at once.

"The Senator's company wouldn't have sold me this land if there was a
suit on it."

Then, little by little, the facts began to clarify in his mind.
Connors, the lawyer, was Senator Fairclothe's law partner; Fairclothe
had been anxious to see the tract drained.

"Oh, my God!" he groaned, "Are they that rotten!"

"But you had the title searched before you bought?" said Higgins.

"Of course. Right back to the first Spanish land grant, and there
wasn't a flaw in it."

"Then those fellows are stung."

"Pooh! Those cheap toughs. They're nothing but tools. There's
probably been a false transfer made to their names, but that's all;
they were picked because they were fighters. Well, whoever picked them
hasn't got the least suspicion of what he's started."

"Land titles are rotten things," growled Higgins. "Specially when land
sharks are juggling them."

"They waited until the ditches were dug," mused Roger. "They didn't
know it would make good land. And then they struck! Higgins, I'm
going right down to Garman's and have a little talk with Senator
Fairclothe."

"Bet you won't find him. Bet he's away selling this tract again to
some other sucker."

But Higgins was wrong. Senator Fairclothe had not gone away. As Roger
entered Garman's grounds, he saw Garman, the Senator and a man in long
black coat and broad-brimmed black hat in conference upon the verandah.
At his appearance Garman, lolling in a lawn chair, chuckled lazily; the
Senator became as cold and pompous as the statue he hoped some day
would commemorate his services to the Republic, and the black-hatted
stranger closed his eyes to mere slits.

"Lo, Payne!" drawled Garman. "Come up out of the sun. You look all
heated up."

He looked down at Roger, a smile on his lips as he noted the tenseness
of the young man's expression.

"Worrying about something, Payne? Ideals been shattered? Ambition,
love-- Where's Annette, by the way?"

His chuckle rose to rumbling laughter.

Senator Fairclothe caught the black-clad stranger's eye and nodded
stiffly. The man rose.

"You are Roger Payne?"

"Sit down!" In one leap Roger was upon the verandah facing the
stranger. "Sit down!" he repeated. "My business is with Senator
Fairclothe."

"My business----"

"Sit down," said Roger softly, and the stranger sat.

"Senator Fairclothe," continued Payne, "there see