tled to hear a knock at his
door, and to see the dusty figure of Porter Barkley, general counsel of
the A. P. and S. E., just from a long buckboard ride from the head of the
rails. With him came Grayson, chief engineer. Dan Anderson invited them
in.

"Well, Mr. Anderson," said Barkley, "here we are, close after you. We're
following up the right-of-way matters sharp and hard now. We can't hold
back our graders, and before the line gets abreast of this canon, we've
got to know what we can do here. Now, what can you tell us by this time?"

"I can tell you, as I said, the status of every town lot and every mining
claim in this valley," replied Dan Anderson. "It's all simple so far as
that is concerned."

"How about that town site? Grayson, here, is ready to go ahead with the
new plat. If you never had any town site filed, how were real-estate
transfers made?"

"There never were any transfers made. There has not been a town lot sold
in ten years."

"Real estate just a little dull?" laughed Barkley, sarcastically.

"We hadn't noticed it," said Dan Anderson, simply.

"But how about your courts? Next thing you'll be telling me there wasn't
any court."

"There never was, except when we acquitted a man for shooting a pig. I
was his counsel, by the way."

"Nor any town election?"

"Why should there be?"

"No government--no nothing? for five years?"

"Over twelve years altogether, to be exact. I'm rather a newcomer
myself."

"No organization--no government--" Barkley summed it up. "Good God!
what kind of a place is this?"

"It's Heart's Desire," said Dan Anderson. No man of that valley was ever
able to say more, or indeed thought it needful to say more.

Porter Barkley gave a contemptuous whistle, as he turned on his heel,
hands in pockets, his bulky form filling the doorway as he looked out.
"So you were a lawyer here," he said. "You must have had rather more
leisure than law practice, I should think."

"It left me all the more time for my reading," said Dan Anderson,
gravely. "You've no idea how much a law practice interferes with one's
legal studies." Barkley looked at him, but could discover no sign of
levity.

"Well, there is one thing mighty sure," said he, shutting his heavy jaws
tight; "this valley is, or was, open to settlement under the United
States land laws."

"Certainly," assented Dan Anderson. "The first men in here were mining
men from every corner of the Rockies, and they