“Weel,” said Callender simply, “by then I may be dead.  Twenty years I’ve lived on my lone here, and I thought at one time I would be content to lie down by between the bush and the river, but now a longing to see the old land grips me.  Ye will not understand it.  Ye were born in Canada.”

“No,” said Alton gravely.  “The land that has fed me is good enough for me.”

The old man made a little gesture of assent.  “Aye,” he said.  “It’s a good country, but I feel the old one calling me.  It’s just three thousand dollars I’m asking ye.”

Alton drew a sheet which seemed covered with calculations from his wallet, and glanced at it silently.  Then he looked at the rancher.

“One thousand down, one thousand in six months, and the rest any time in two years, with six per cent,” he said.  “You might get the dollars in your wallet if you made the deal with a land agent in Vancouver.”

“Maybe,” said Callender simply; “I can trust ye.  I would not sell the place to anybody.”

Alton stood up.  “You shall have a cheque to-morrow,” he said.

They had mounted within another minute, and Alton glanced with a little smile at his comrade as they rode on again.

“That,” said Seaforth, “was in a sense a somewhat effective scene, but I’m not sure which of us should go to the business school.”

Alton laughed.  “I don’t often blunder when I deal with a man,” said he.  “Callender and I wouldn’t have been better pleased, or five dollars richer, if we’d talked all day.”

Seaforth nodded, though his eyes twinkled.  “You don’t seem so confident about the other sex?” he said.

Alton gravely pointed to a towering fir.  “That redwood would fetch a good many dollars in Vancouver.  I wonder when we’ll get those saws through,” he said.

While he spoke a thud of hoofs grew louder, and presently a man came riding in haste towards them down the trail.  He drew bridle when he recognized them, and Seaforth became curious when he saw that it was Hallam.  The latter made them an ironical salutation, and sat regarding Alton covertly with his cunning beady eyes until the rancher smiled.

“If you were going down to see Callender, I fancy you’re a little too late,” he said.

Seaforth wondered whether his comrade saw the wickedness in the other man’s face, and the slight closing of his hands upon the bridle.  It was very perceptible for a second, and then he made a gesture of resignation.

“I think there was another time you got in ahead of me, and it might be cheaper to buy you off,” he said.  “You haven’t answered my letter asking what you wanted for all you’re holding up here, as well as the ranch.”

Alton flung his head back a trifle, and Seaforth knew what lay behind his laugh.  “No,” he said; “I put it in the stove.”

A little grey spot appeared in Hallam’s cheeks, and once more his fingers closed upon the bridle.  “Well, you may be sorry by and by, but as I’m a business man first and last I’ll give you another chance,” he said.  “There’s not room for two of us in this valley, and with what I’m holding I can call you any time.”