"since you retain me and
ask my legal opinion, the fundamental title to the valley of Heart's
Desire lies in the ability of every fellow there to hit a tin can at
forty yards with a six-shooter. There's hardly a tin can in the street
that you could cook a meal in," he added plaintively.

"I see," said Barkley, his laughter a little forced. "But now, I heard
there never was a town site filed on."

"There was a story," replied Dan Anderson, ruminatingly, "that Jack
Wilson laid out a town there soon after he made the Homestake strike.
He had McDonald, the deputy surveyor, plat it out on a piece of brown
paper,--which was the only sort they had,--and Jack started over with
the plat to file at the county seat. He got caught in a rain and used
the paper to start a fire with. After that he forgot about it, and
after that again, he died; so there never was any town site. The boys
just built their houses where they felt like it; and since then they
have been so busy about other things--croquet, music, embroidery,
antelope hunting, and the like--that they haven't had time to think
about town lots or town sites, or anything of that sort."

Barkley's eyes gleamed. "That will simplify matters very much," said
he.

"You really do need local counsel," Dan Anderson observed. "On the
contrary of that, it will complicate matters very much."

"Well, we'll see about that," rejoined Barkley, grimly. "We'll see if
a little mining camp can hold up a railroad corporation the size of
this! But why don't you put your money in your pocket? It's yours,
man."

Dan Anderson slowly picked up the bills, folded them, and tucked them
into a pocket. "This," said he, "is a great deal more than the entire
circulating medium of Heart's Desire. I'm likely to become a
disturbing factor up there."

"That's what we want you to become," said Barkley. "We know there're a
lot of good mining claims in there, especially the coal lands on the
east side of the valley. It isn't the freight and passenger traffic
that we're after--we want to get hold of those mines. Why, the inside
gang of the Southern Pacific--you'll keep this a professional secret,
of course--has told us that they'll take coal from us for their whole
system west of Houston. In a couple of years there'll be a town there
of eight or ten thousand people. Why, man, it's the chance of your
life. And here's Mr. Ellsworth putting you in on the ground floor."

Dan Anderson looked a