tial, smooth,--but he is crooked."

"What do you know of Graham Brenchfield?" she asked suddenly. "When
was it that you met him before coming here? What did he do to you?
That time you met in my little home up on the hill was not your first
acquaintance."

Phil was completely taken aback by the suddenness of her query, and he
did not answer.

Eileen laid her hand over his.

"Phil,--I--I've a right to know;--I--we----"

Phil's hand closed tightly on hers and, as they glided rapidly over
the snow toward Vernock, he told her what he had told Jim only the
night before.

"Oh, the brute! The coward!" was all Eileen's bloodless lips allowed
to pass, as she sat staring blankly ahead of her, her face pale and
her hands working together on her lap.

"And that--that snake had the impertinence to ask me to marry him,"
she continued later, "still thinks he may induce my father to agree to
a marriage between us. I think that he is working up some scheme now
to get daddy too heavily involved, so that we may have to use him. The
miserable hound!--as if my dad would think of coercing me into
marrying him!"

"You aren't afraid of Brenchfield, Eileen? Because, if you are, I'll
throttle the life out of him."

"No, no! I am not a bit afraid of Mayor Brenchfield,--not now. But I
am afraid for my father.

"Brenchfield has a scheme for grabbing the land in the Valley
whenever, wherever, and by whatever means he can. He has infected
father with the same desire. They buy, and buy, and buy--vying each
other in their daring. No one knows--they hardly know themselves--how
much they really have."

"But don't they turn it over?"

"No! Everyone else does and gets rich in the process. They buy, and
buy, and when offered a big advance on their purchase price they
refuse to sell. They think this advancing in prices will go on for
ever. The bank keeps on lending them money when they run short, taking
their holdings as security in return. After all, daddy really owns but
an interest in the properties--and a precarious interest at that. The
banks won't lose. Allow them! But they have no right to encourage this
kind of business;--it is bad for the country at large."

"That is true enough, but still, I think property will go on advancing
for quite a little time yet," said Phil. "Every tendency points that
way. Settlers from Ontario and Manitoba farms are coming in here by
the hundreds to ranch, on account of the less rigorous climate. The
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