the furnishings.

"Chris-to-pher Columbus!" exploded Robinson, "why don't you fix
yourself up a bit, Martin? The Lord knows you're going to be able
to afford it. What you need is a wife--someone to look after
you." And as Martin, observing him calmly, made no response, he
added, "I suppose you know what I want. You've been watching for
this day, eh, Martin? All Fallon County's sitting on its
haunches--waiting."

"Oh, I haven't been worrying. A fellow situated like me, with a
hundred and sixty right in the way of a coal company, can afford
to be independent."

"You understand our procedure, Martin," Robinson continued. "We
are frank and aboveboard. We set the price, and if you can't see
your way clear to take it there are no hard feelings. We simply
call it off--for good."

Wade knew how true this was. When the mining first began, several
rebels toward the East had tried profitlessly to buck this
irrefragable game and had found they had battered their
unyielding heads against an equally unyielding stone wall. These
men had demanded more and Robinson's company, true to its threat,
had urbanely gone around their farms, travelled on and left them
behind, their coal untouched and certain to so remain. Such
inelastic lessons, given time to soak in, were sobering.

"Now," said Robinson, in his amiable matter-of-fact manner, "as I
happen to know the history of this quarter, backwards and