“I don’t know a damn thing about your timber, byes,” said he, “but I like your looks.  I’ll go in wid ye.  Have a seegar; they cost me a dollar apiece.”

The sum invested was absurdly, inadequately small.

“It’ll have to spread as thin as it can,” said Cathcart.

They spent the entire season camping in the mountains.  By the end of the summer they knew what they wanted; and immediately took steps to acquire it.  Under the homestead laws each was entitled to but a small tract of Government land.  However, they hired men to exercise their privileges in this respect, to take up each his allotted portion, and then to convey his rights to Cathcart and Gates.  It was slow business, for the show of compliance with Government regulations had to be made.  But in this manner the sum of money at their disposal was indeed spread out very thin.

For many years the small, nibbling lumbering operations their limited capital permitted supplied only a little more than a bare living and the taxes.  But every available cent went back into the business.  It grew.  Band saws replaced the old circulars; the new mills delivered their product into flumes that carried it forty miles to the railroad.  The construction of this flume was a tremendous undertaking, but by now the firm could borrow on its timber.  To get the water necessary to keep the flume in operation the partners—­again by means of “dummies”—­filed on the water rights of certain streams.  To take up the water directly was without the law; but a show of mineral stain was held to justify a “mineral claim,” so patents were obtained under that ruling.  Then Charley had a bright idea.

“Look here, Cliff,” he said to Cathcart.  “I know something about farming; I was brought up on a farm.  This country will grow anything anywhere if it has water.  That lower country they call a desert, but that’s only because it hasn’t any rainfall.  We’re going to have a lot of water at the end of that flume——­”

They bought the desert land at fifty cents an acre; scraped ditches and checks; planted a model orchard, and went into the real estate business.  In time a community grew up.  When hydro-electric power came into its own Cathcart & Gates from their various water rights furnished light for themselves, and gradually for the towns and villages round-about.  Thus their affairs spread and became complicated.  Before they knew it they were wealthy, very wealthy.  Their wives—­for in due course each had his romance—­began to talk of San Francisco.

All this had not come about easily.  At first they had to fight tooth and nail.  The conditions of the times were crude, the code merciless.  As soon as the firm showed its head above the financial horizon, it was swooped upon.  Business was predatory.  They had to fight for what they got; had to fight harder to hold it.  Cathcart was involved continually in a maze of intricate banking transactions; Gates