lay on Ranger stuff and we couldn't lose.
But I know nothing about you except the little you've told me. When I
go into a deal I put my trust more in the man than the proposition."

"And I trust my own judgment of human character more than that of
strangers," Gray said, quickly. "So do you. Thirty days is a long time
with me, and the oil business is just my speed. Permit me to remind you
that time is flying and that I have given myself only three hours in
which to turn this property. I intend to beat Nelson, and apply that
beating on account of an old score. This is more than a mere business
deal."

"I like your energy," the banker confessed, "and I'm inclined to bet
some of my own money on you. Now"--he pushed a button on his
desk--"let's see if there are any others here who feel as I do." It was
early evening when Gus Briskow returned to his wife's and his
daughter's rooms at the Ajax. He slipped in quietly and sank into a
chair.

"Mercy me! I thought you was run over," Ma Briskow exclaimed.

"I feel like I was," the nester declared, with a grin. "Say! Mister
Gray sold the Evans lease an'--we got more money than ever."

"Then mebbe you can afford a new suit," Allie told him. "You look like
sin."

Her father nodded, but his mind was full of the incidents of that
afternoon and he began at once to recount them. He told the story
badly, but in a language that the women understood. He had not gone
far, however, when the girl interrupted him to exclaim:

"Wait! Why, Pa! You mean to say Mister Gray 'ain't got no money?"

"He had less 'n a hundred dollars. An' him livin' here like a king with
everybody bowin' an' scrapin'!"

Ignoring the effect upon Allie of this intelligence, he continued his
recital. "All I done was set around while him an' them bank people
talked it over," he said, finally. "Then they got their lawyer in an'
he examined the title papers. Seemed like he'd never git through, but
he did, an' they signed some things an' we come out, an' Mister Gray
told me I'd made forty-eight thousand dollars."

"Goodness me!" Ma Briskow's eyes widened. "Why, that Evans place ain't
wuth the taxes."

"It's more 'n likely wuth a million. But think! Him tellin' me _I'd_
made forty-eight thousand dollars! It give me a jolt, an' I says _I_
didn't make it. I told him I'd fell down an' turned the hull thing over
to him. 'It's _you_ that's made forty-eight thousand,' I says."

"_What?_" Allie inquired, sharply. Then wh