Brooke laughed. "I'm not sure it's worth while to worry very much over a point of that kind, especially when it seems likely to lead to nothing beyond the probability of being pitched into a river." "Still," said the stranger, with the little twinkle showing plainer in his eyes, "in this case it was the other man who fell in." "I fancy it quite frequently is," said Brooke, reflectively. "That is usually the result of meddling." The stranger nodded, and quietly inspected him. "You have been here some time, but you are an Englishman," he said. "I am," said Brooke. "Is there any reason why I should hide the fact?" "You couldn't do it. How long have you been here?" "Four years in all, I think." "What did you come out for?" Brooke was accustomed to Western brusquerie, and there was nothing in his companion's manner which made the question offensive. "I fancy my motive was not an unusual one. To pick up a few dollars." "Got them yet?" "I can't say I have." The stranger appeared reflective. "There are not many folks who would have admitted that," he said. "When a man has been four years in this country he ought to have put a few dollars together. What have you been at?" "Ranching most of the time. Road-making, saw-milling, and a few other occupations of the same kind afterwards." "What was wrong with the ranch?" Persistent questioning is not unusual in that country, for what is considered delicacy depends largely upon locality, and Brooke laughed. "Almost everything," he said. "It had a good many disadvantages besides its rockiness, sterility, and an unusually abundant growth of two-hundred-feet trees. Still, it was the man who sold it me I found most fault with. He was a land agent." "One of the little men?" "No. I believe he is considered rather a big one--in fact about the biggest in that particular line." The little sardonic gleam showed a trifle more plainly in the stranger's eyes. "He told you the land was nicely cleared ready, and would grow anything?" "No," said Brooke. "He, however, led me to believe that it could be cleared with very little difficulty, and that the lumber was worth a good deal. I daresay it is, if there was any means whatever of getting it to a mill, which there isn't. He certainly told me there was no reason it shouldn't grow as good fruit as any that comes from Oregon, while I found the greatest difficulty in getting a little green oat fodder out of it." "You went back, and tried to cry off your bargain?" Brooke glanced at his companion, and fancied that he was watching him closely. "I really don't know any reason why I should worry you with my affairs. My case isn't at all an unusual one." "I don't know of any why you shouldn't. Go right on."