w had been bought over, and would
adopt Parrell as the D., P. and M. candidate for Railroad Commissioner
from the third district.

One of the cooks brought up Annixter's breakfast that morning, and he
went through it hastily, reading his mail at the same time and glancing
over the pages of the "Mercury," Genslinger's paper. The "Mercury,"
Annixter was persuaded, received a subsidy from the Pacific and
Southwestern Railroad, and was hardly better than the mouthpiece
by which Shelgrim and the General Office spoke to ranchers about
Bonneville.

An editorial in that morning's issue said:

"It would not be surprising to the well-informed, if the long-deferred
re-grade of the value of the railroad sections included in the Los
Muertos, Quien Sabe, Osterman and Broderson properties was made before
the first of the year. Naturally, the tenants of these lands feel an
interest in the price which the railroad will put upon its holdings,
and it is rumoured they expect the land will be offered to them for
two dollars and fifty cents per acre. It needs no seventh daughter of a
seventh daughter to foresee that these gentlemen will be disappointed."

"Rot!" vociferated Annixter to himself as he finished. He rolled the
paper into a wad and hurled it from him.

"Rot! rot! What does Genslinger know about it? I stand on my agreement
with the P. and S. W.--from two fifty to five dollars an acre--there
it is in black and white. The road IS obligated. And my improvements! I
made the land valuable by improving it, irrigating it, draining it, and
cultivating it. Talk to ME. I know better."

The most abiding impression that Genslinger's editorial made upon him
was, that possibly the "Mercury" was not subsidised by the corporation
after all. If it was; Genslinger would not have been led into making
his mistake as to the value of the land. He would have known that the
railroad was under contract to sell at two dollars and a half an acre,
and not only this, but that when the land was put upon the market, it
was to be offered to the present holders first of all. Annixter called
to mind the explicit terms of the agreement between himself and the
railroad, and dismissed the matter from his mind. He lit a cigar, put on
his hat and went out.

The morning was fine, the air nimble, brisk. On the summit of the
skeleton-like tower of the artesian well, the windmill was turning
steadily in a breeze from the southwest. The water in the irrigating
ditc