the West. Minnesota, in its eastern part,
is already producing wheat in an abundance that discourages all eastern
farmers and sets them to the culture of small fruits and to truck
gardening for the supply of the great cities there. There is great gain
even in that. Presently the Minnesota wheat farmers will extend their
limitless fields into the Dakotah country as soon as railroads are built
there--and a new era of development will begin."

"Why do you not include the South in your reckoning?" asked Hallam.

"I do. Under the new conditions the South will produce more cotton than
it ever did, and its coal and iron resources will be enormously
developed. But the South is, for the present, handicapped by disturbed
conditions and a disorganized labor system. It will be long before that
region shall take its full share in national development--in what I
call 'nation building.'

"Pardon me for wandering so far afield. I have meant only to show you
what I regard as the true character of the work that you and your
associates are doing. Now, I wish and intend to do my share in that
work. To that end, I must have money of my own, and that control of
other people's money which comes only to men who have money of their
own. I don't care a fig for money for its own sake. I want it as a tool
with which I may do my work."

"I think I understand you," answered Hallam, after a few minutes'
reflection. "You shall have the tools. You have already put away
two-thirds of your salary from month to month. I have to-day multiplied
that salary by three. You'll soon have 'grub stakes' for any enterprise
you may choose to enter upon. But that isn't all. If it were, it would
mean that I am to lose you presently. I don't mean to do that. You are
too good a man for a clerk. I propose to make of you a partner in all my
outside enterprises. I must go now. I've five people to meet at ten
o'clock. Come to me after that hour, if you're sufficiently rested, and
we'll talk business."

"Oh, I'm sufficiently rested already. I'll join you at ten or a little
later, as I suppose you won't be free till then."

Captain Will Hallam rose, grasped the hand of his companion, and, after
a look into his eyes, said:

"You're the right sort. You have vim, force, pathos, and energy. You and
I, working together, will salivate things in a way that will make
Calomel ashamed of itself."

"But how about Kennedy and his discharge?" asked Duncan.

"Oh, that's settled