It was a delicate compliment they had
paid Alton, and the little flush in his face showed that he realized it.

"It's great news," said somebody.

Alton nodded. "Yes," he said. "Now I can't tell you exactly why I
know this thing will come, and you wouldn't be any worse off if I were
wrong. Further, you see I might have gone ahead and brought you up
without speaking a word to you."

A man got up from a barrel. "No, sir," he said. "I'm not going to
disturb this meeting, but that's just what you couldn't do. It
wouldn't be like Somasco Harry."

There was grave applause, but the glint in the steady eyes was pleasant
to see, and Seaforth felt a curious thrill as he glanced at his
partner. Alton, however, proceeded quietly.

"I needn't tell you what it means," he said. "It may mean anything,
including a wooden city. You know it as well as I do, but I'm going to
tell you this. Unless you hold tight to your own, and do a little for
yourselves, when the good time comes you'll be left out in the cold.
There's a man who sees this better than you or I feeling for a grip on
the Somasco valley, and there'll be very little left for the rest of us
if he gets it."

"Hallam of the Tyee," a growl ran down the table.

Alton nodded. "Yes," said he. "Now you have seen poor men frozen out
of their ranches and claims by men with money in other parts of this
country as well as across the frontier, and there's usually only one
end to the battle when the man without the dollars kicks against the
man with plenty. Stay right where you are with mortgages held open,
timber rights that are lapsing because you've done nothing, and
undeveloped mineral claims, and the man who sits scheming while you're
resting will squeeze you out one by one."

"It has happened before," said somebody, and there was silence for a
space. The men had spent the best years of their life hewing the
clearings that grew so slowly farther into the virgin forest, faring
sparingly, and only quitting that herculean toil to earn sufficient
dollars railroad building or working at the mines to feed them when
they continued it again. They had sown the best that was in them of
mind and body, giving all they had, courage that never faltered, as
well as the ceaseless effort of over-strained muscle, and as yet their
fee was but the right to hope and toil. And now, they knew, it was
once more possible that the full-fleshed taxer of other men's labours
would sweep