g the way, grasping a fortune--a million in a single day. All the
bigness of his nature leaped up again within him. At the magnitude of
the inspiration he felt young again, indomitable, the leader at last,
king of his fellows, wresting from fortune at this eleventh hour, before
his old age, the place of high command which so long had been denied
him. At last he could achieve.

Abruptly Magnus was aware that some one had spoken his name. He looked
about and saw behind him, at a little distance, two gentlemen, strangers
to him. They had withdrawn from the crowd into a little recess.
Evidently having no women to look after, they had lost interest in the
afternoon's affair. Magnus realised that they had not seen him. One of
them was reading aloud to his companion from an evening edition of that
day's newspaper. It was in the course of this reading that Magnus caught
the sound of his name. He paused, listening, and Presley, Harran and
Cedarquist followed his example. Soon they all understood. They were
listening to the report of the judge's decision, for which Magnus was
waiting--the decision in the case of the League vs. the Railroad. For
the moment, the polite clamour of the raffle hushed itself--the winning
number was being drawn. The guests held their breath, and in the ensuing
silence Magnus and the others heard these words distinctly:

".... It follows that the title to the lands in question is in the
plaintiff--the Pacific and Southwestern Railroad, and the defendants
have no title, and their possession is wrongful. There must be findings
and judgment for the plaintiff, and it is so ordered."

In spite of himself, Magnus paled. Harran shut his teeth with an oath.
Their exaltation of the previous moment collapsed like a pyramid of
cards. The vision of the new movement of the wheat, the conquest of the
East, the invasion of the Orient, seemed only the flimsiest mockery.
With a brusque wrench, they were snatched back to reality. Between
them and the vision, between the fecund San Joaquin, reeking with
fruitfulness, and the millions of Asia crowding toward the verge of
starvation, lay the iron-hearted monster of steel and steam, implacable,
insatiable, huge--its entrails gorged with the life blood that it
sucked from an entire commonwealth, its ever hungry maw glutted with the
harvests that should have fed the famished bellies of the whole world of
the Orient.

But abruptly, while the four men stood there, gazing into