s banker,
evidently."

"He banks in Las Vegas, I guess."

"What about his cattle?"

"He shipped three thousand head last season."

"How big is his outfit?"

"He's got about twenty men. They're all hard cases--like him, and they'd
shoot themselves for him."

Corrigan got up and walked to the window, from where he looked out at
Manti. The town looked like an army camp. Lumber, merchandise, supplies of
every description, littered the street in mounds and scattered heaps,
awaiting the erection of tent-house and building. But there was none of
that activity that might have been expected from the quantity of material
on hand; it seemed that the owners were waiting, delaying in anticipation
of some force that would give them encouragement. They were reluctant to
risk their money in erecting buildings on the strength of mere rumor. But
they had come, hoping.

Corrigan grinned at Braman. "They're afraid to take a chance," he said,
meaning Manti's citizens.

"Don't blame them. I've spread the stuff around--as you told me. That's
all they've heard. They're here on a forlorn hope. The boom they are
looking for, seems, from present conditions, to be lurking somewhere in
the future, shadowed by an indefiniteness that to them is vaguely
connected with somebody's promise of a dam, agricultural activity to
follow, and factories. They haven't been able to trace the rumors, but
they're here, and they'll make things hum if they get a chance."

"Sure," grinned Corrigan. "A boom town is always a graft for first
arrivals. That is, boom towns _have_ been. But Manti--" He paused.

"Yes, different," chuckled the banker. "It must have cost a wad to shove
that water grant through."

"Benham kicked on the price--it was enough."

"That maximum rate clause is a pippin. You can soak them the limit right
from the jump."

"And scare them out," scoffed Corrigan. "That isn't the game. Get them
here, first. Then--"

The banker licked his lips. "How does old Benham take it?"

"Mr. Benham is enthusiastic because everything will be done in a perfectly
legitimate way--he thinks."

"And the courts?"

"Judge Lindman, of the District Court now in Dry Bottom, is going to
establish himself here. Benham pulled that string."

"Good!" said Braman. "When is Lindman coming?"

Corrigan's smile was crooked; it told eloquently of conscious power over
the man he had named.

"He'll come whenever I give the word. Benham's got something on him."

"