"
A slow smile was spreading itself over the strong face of the railway
magnate as he listened.
"Say, David," he retorted mildly, "it isn't much like you to go forty
miles around when there is a short way across. Why didn't you tell me
plainly in the beginning that you wanted a place for your boy?"
"Hold on; don't let's get too far along before we get started; I'm not
saying it now," was the sober protest. "You forget that you've just been
telling me that you don't intend to comply with the one hard-and-fast
condition to such an arrangement as the one I've been pipe-dreaming
about."
"What condition?"
"That you turn over a brand-new leaf and meet the people of this State
half-way on a proposition of fair play for everybody."
"There isn't any half-way point in a fight for life, David. You know
that as well, or better, than I do. But let that go. We'll give your son
the place you want him to have, and do it gladly."
The man who had once been his own foreman of round-ups straightened
himself in his chair and smote the table with his fist.
"No, by God, you won't--not in a thousand years, McVickar! Maybe you
could buy me--maybe you _have_ bought me in times past--but you can't
buy that boy! Listen, and I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I
telegraphed the boy this afternoon, telling him to throw up his job in
Boston and come out here.
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