y.
"That's what I drove out for. I have a buyer anxious to get a claim on
the Brule and I believe he would pay $1200 for this relinquishment. A
quick profit."

"Sell? No!" we declared. "With such demand for land on the Strip we may
be able to get $2500 for it when it is proved up."

He agreed. A raw quarter-section of deeded land just outside the border
had sold the other day for $3500, he informed us. With all the breaking
and improvement going on over the Brule, it was predicted by real-estate
boosters that choice homesteads here would be worth $4000 to $5000 in
another year or so--after the land was deeded.

Within sixty days after the arrival of the first Lucky Number on his
claim the 200 square miles of the Brule would be filled. The winners had
filed consecutively, so many numbers each day for that length of time.
Their time to establish residence would thus expire accordingly. Already
the broad expanse of grassland we had seen during our first week on the
Brule was changed beyond recognition, shacks everywhere, fields plowed,
movement and activity. The frontier had receded once more before the
advancing tide of civilization. Within sixty days!

With the price of claims soaring, it became a mecca for claim jumpers.
They circled around ready to light on the land like buzzards on a
carcass. They watched every quarter-section for the arrival of the
settler. If he were not on his land by dark of the last day, some
"spotter" was likely to jump the claim and next morning rush to the Land
Office and slap a contest on it.

They were unlike the claim jumpers of the older pioneer days who jumped
the land because they wanted it for a home. Many of these men would not
have proved up a claim at any price. But in many instances they brought
landseekers with them who legally filed contests and homesteading rights
over the settler. They paid the claim jumpers well for their services in
getting hold of the land. Often, being strangers, the landseekers did
not know that these "spotters" were not land agents.

They were a ruthless lot as a whole, these claim jumpers. They took long
chances, illegally selling relinquishments and skipping the country
before they were caught. Some of them even threatened or intimidated
newcomers who knew nothing about the West or its land laws.

Of a different type were unscrupulous locating agents who used the
technicalities of the homestead law to operate the despicable "contest"
business. Wh