ght for speculation
merely. But these, though well enough in their way, were not entirely
satisfactory. The company needed actual settlers--men who would go upon
the lands and improve them--to furnish object lessons from the ground
itself to personally conducted, prospective buyers, who in turn should
do the same, and ultimately provide the Prairie Southern branch of
Western Airline with a paying traffic in freight and humanity.

But prospective buyers proved annoyingly inquisitive. After looking at
the company's holdings, they naturally wished to see for themselves
what the country was good for; and the obvious way to find out was to
visit the established ranches.

Sleeman could not prevent it--nor appear to wish to prevent it. In
fact, he had to acquiesce cheerfully and take them himself. That was
better than letting them go alone. But the very air seemed to carry
rumours. In vain he assured them that there was no fear of trouble,
that in any event the company would protect them; in vain he showed
them the big canal and beautiful system of ditches, and pointed with
much enthusiasm to the armour-belted, double-riveted clause in the sale
contracts, guaranteeing to the lucky buyer the delivery of so many
miner's inches or cubic feet of water every day in the year.

"It's like this," said one prospective buyer: "They ain't enough water
for the whole country, and you're certainly aimin' to cinch some of the
men that's here already so tight they can't breathe. If I buy water
they're gettin' now, they're mighty apt to be sore on me. Dunno's I
blame them, either. I like to stand well with my neighbours. Your
land's all right, but I can't see where we deal."

And the attitude of this individual was fairly representative.
Landlookers came, saw; but, instead of remaining to conquer the soil,
the majority of them went elsewhere.

This was hard on Sleeman. He was a good salesman, and he had a good
proposition; but he was handicapped by conditions not of his creating
and beyond his control. And he knew quite well that, while a
corporation may not give an employee any credit whatever for
satisfactory results, it invariably saddles him with the discredit of
unsatisfactory ones.

He foresaw that sooner or later--and very probably sooner--he would be
asked to explain why he was not making sales. And he came to the
conclusion that, as something was sure to start, he might as well start
it himself.

His cogitations crystallized