The Fighting Shepherdess

"Because of you, I am the better able to appreciate true friendship, integrity, the many qualities which go to make up greatness of mind and heart, and that in happier circumstances I have learned do exist. So you see, if you have taken much, perhaps you have given more, and I have an obligation to discharge. Therefore," she turned to her father with a slightly inquiring look, "if the decision still remains with me, I should like to know that the project will go through."

The tense and pent-up feelings of the guests found an outlet in long-drawn breaths and indignant but unconvincing murmurs that "they'd rather starve," which did not prevent all attention focusing upon Prentiss, whose face wore a forbidding grimness from which all semblance of friendliness had long since fled.

"If I had known--if I had dreamed of half of this--I am frank to confess that you could not have interested me in this proposition for the hundredth part of a second. But it will be completed because it is my daughter's wish. However," with cold emphasis, "upon my own terms.

"You may, or may not know, that the involved affairs of the project leave it practically optional with a new company whether they recognize the claims against former companies or repudiate these debts.

"The local claims amount to something like sixty-five thousand dollars, which is a sum of considerable importance, distributed in a town of this size. I had intended to pay these claims in full, largely as a matter of sentiment, presuming that among those affected there were at least a few of my daughter's friends. What she has said to-night gives the matter a new face. It is now a business proposition with me. I am no philanthropist where my interests or affections are not concerned.

"The offer I am about to make you can take or you can leave, but I've a notion self-interest will prevail over your temporary pique, since you no doubt realize that unless something is done almost immediately this segregated land will revert to the state.

"I will not pay any debts of former companies, and I will take over the controlling stock--not at the figure at which you are holding it, but at what I consider a fair price. I will enlarge the ditch and complete the project so that it will meet every requirement of the state engineers and turn it over to the settlers under it when it has been demonstrated to be a complete success."

They thought he had done, and again looked at each other with deep-drawn breaths, when he resumed: "There is one more condition upon which I insist: It is that in the purchase of the stock I deal with the stockholders direct. There shall be no commission paid to a go-between." He looked at Toomey as he spoke. "My reason for this is purely personal, but nevertheless my offer rests upon this stipulation." There was no mistaking the finality of his tone or the cold enmity of his voice.