under one control?"

Foster colored. "It was necessary to co-operate," he said slowly, "in
order to meet the enormous expense of development and transportation. We
wished to build a narrow-gauge road--it was then in course of
construction--but the survey was through the Chugach Mountains, the most
rugged in North America. The cost of moving material, after it was shipped
from the States, was almost prohibitive; ordinary labor commanded higher
wages than are paid skilled mechanics here in Seattle."

"Mr. Foster, were not those coal claims located with a purpose to dispose
of them in a group at a profit?"

"No, sir. I have told you on account of the great expense of development
it was necessary to work together; it was also necessary that as many
claims as possible should be taken."

The prosecution, nodding affirmatively, looked at the jury. "The more
cunning and subtle the disguise," he said, "the more sure we may be of the
evasion of the law. So, Mr. Foster, you promoted an interest in the
fields, selected claims for men who never saw them; used their power of
attorney?"

"Yes. That was in accordance with the law then in force. We paid for our
coal claims, the required ten dollars an acre. The land office accepted
our money, eighty thousand dollars. Then the President suspended the law,
and we never received our patents. About that time the Chugach forest
reserve was made, and we were hampered by all sorts of impossible
conditions. Some of us were financially ruined. One of the first locators
spent one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, his whole fortune, in
development. He opened his mine and had several tons of coal carried by
packers through the mountains to the coast, to be shipped to Seattle, to
be tested on one of the Government cruisers. The report was so favorable
it encouraged the rest of us to stay with the venture."

"Mr. Foster," the attorney's voice took a higher, more aggressive pitch,
"were not many of those claims entered under names furnished by an agent
of the Morganstein interests?"

"Well, yes." Foster threw his head with something of his old boyish
defiance. He was losing patience and skill. "Mr. Morganstein himself made
a filing, and his father. That is the reason all our holdings are now
classed as the Morganstein group."

"And," pursued the lawyer, "their entries were incidental with the
consolidation of your company with the Prince William Development
Company?"

Foster flushed hotly