nd for a time they talked of horses and
cattle as they sipped their wine, which was the choicest that France could
send them; and it is also probable that no better cigars ever came from
Cuba than those they smoked. By and by, however, Torrance laid his aside.

"It's time we got down to work," he said. "I sent for ten of you, and
eight have come. One sent valid excuses, and one made no answer."

"Larry Grant," said Clavering. "I guess he was too busy at the depot
bringing a fat Dutchman and a crowd of hard-faced Dakota ploughboys in."

There was a little murmur of astonishment which, had the men been
different, would not have been quite free from consternation, for it was
significant news.

"You're quite sure?" asked Torrance, and his face was stern.

"Well," said Clavering languidly, "I saw him, and bantered him a little on
his prepossessing friends. Asked him why, when he was at it, he didn't go
to Manitoba for Canadians. Larry didn't take it nicely."

"I'm sorry," said one of the older men. "Larry is one of us, and the last
man I'd figure on committing that kind of meanness would be the son of
Fremont Grant. Quite sure it's not a fit of temper? You have not been
worrying him, Torrance?"

Torrance closed one hand. "Grant of Fremont was my best friend, and when
he died I 'most brought the lad up as a son. When he got hold of his
foolish notions it hurt me considerably, and I did what I could to talk
him out of them."

There was a little smile in the faces of some of the men, for Torrance's
draconic fashion of arguing was known to them.

"You put it a little too straight, and he told you something that riled
you," said one.

"He did," said Torrance grimly. "Still, for 'most two years I kept a curb
on my temper. Then one evening I told him he had to choose right then
between his fancies and me. I could have no dealings with any man who
talked as he did."

"Do you remember any of it?" asked another man.

"Yes," said Torrance. "His father's friends were standing in the way of
progress. Land that would feed a thousand families was keeping us in
luxury no American was entitled to. This was going to be the poor man's
country, and the plough was bound to come!"

Clavering laughed softly, and there were traces of ironical amusement in
the faces of the rest. Very similar predictions had more than once been
flung at them, and their possessions were still, they fancied, secure to
them. They, however, became grave ag