't know. Look here, you're not talking to old Broderson.
Wake up, Ruggles. What's all this talk in Genslinger's rag about the
grading of the value of our lands this winter and an advance in the
price?"

Ruggles spread out his hands with a deprecatory gesture.

"I don't own the 'Mercury,'" he said.

"Well, your company does."

"If it does, I don't know anything about it."

"Oh, rot! As if you and Genslinger and S. Behrman didn't run the whole
show down here. Come on, let's have it, Ruggles. What does S. Behrman
pay Genslinger for inserting that three-inch ad. of the P. and S. W. in
his paper? Ten thousand a year, hey?"

"Oh, why not a hundred thousand and be done with it?" returned the
other, willing to take it as a joke.

Instead of replying, Annixter drew his check-book from his inside
pocket.

"Let me take that fountain pen of yours," he said. Holding the book on
his knee he wrote out a check, tore it carefully from the stub, and laid
it on the desk in front of Ruggles.

"What's this?" asked Ruggles.

"Three-fourths payment for the sections of railroad land included in my
ranch, based on a valuation of two dollars and a half per acre. You can
have the balance in sixty-day notes."

Ruggles shook his head, drawing hastily back from the check as though it
carried contamination.

"I can't touch it," he declared. "I've no authority to sell to you yet."

"I don't understand you people," exclaimed Annixter. "I offered to buy
of you the same way four years ago and you sang the same song. Why, it
isn't business. You lose the interest on your money. Seven per cent. of
that capital for four years--you can figure it out. It's big money."

"Well, then, I don't see why you're so keen on parting with it. You can
get seven per cent. the same as us."

"I want to own my own land," returned Annixter. "I want to feel that
every lump of dirt inside my fence is my personal property. Why, the
very house I live in now--the ranch house--stands on railroad ground."

"But, you've an option"

"I tell you I don't want your cursed option. I want ownership; and it's
the same with Magnus Derrick and old Broderson and Osterman and all the
ranchers of the county. We want to own our land, want to feel we can do
as we blame please with it. Suppose I should want to sell Quien Sabe. I
can't sell it as a whole till I've bought of you. I can't give anybody a
clear title. The land has doubled in value ten times over again since I
came i