For a time after the coming of Rosalind, Corrigan sat in a big rocking chair, looking thoughtfully down the Manti trail, listening to the girl talk of the country, picturing her on a distant day--not too distant, either, for he meant to press his suit--sitting beside him on the porch of another house that he meant to build when he had achieved his goal. These thoughts thrilled him as they had never thrilled him until the entrance of Trevison into his scheme of things. He had been sure of her then. And now the knowledge that he had a rival, filled him with a thousand emotions, the most disturbing of which was jealousy. The rage in him was deep and malignant as he coupled the mental pictures of his imagination with the material record of Rosalind's movements with his rival, as related by Agatha. It was not his way to procrastinate; he meant to exert every force at his command, quickly, resistlessly, to destroy Trevison, to blacken him and damn him, in the eyes of the girl who sat beside him. But he knew that in the girl's presence he must be wise and subtle. "It's a great country, isn't it?" he said, his eyes on the broad reaches of plain, green-brown in the shimmering sunlight. "Look at it--almost as big as some of the Old-world states! It's a wonderful country. I feel like a feudal baron, with the destinies of an important principality in the clutch of my hand!" "Yes; it must give one a feeling of great responsibility to know that one has an important part in the development of a section like this." He laughed, deep in his throat, at the awe in her voice. "I ought to have seen its possibilities years ago--I should have been out here, preparing for this. But when I bought the land I had no idea it would one day be so valuable." "Bought it?" "A hundred thousand acres of it. I got it very cheap." He told her about the Midland grant and his purchase from Marchmont. "I never heard of that before!" she told him. "It wasn't generally known. In fact, it was apparently generally considered that the land had been sold by the Midland Company to various people--in small parcels. Unscrupulous agents engineered the sales, I suppose. But the fact is that I made the purchase from the Midland Company years ago--largely as a personal favor to Jim Marchmont, who needed money badly. And a great many of the ranch-owners around here really have no title to their land, and will have to give it up." She breathed deeply. "That will be a great disappointment to them, now that there exists the probability of a great advance in the value of the land." "That was the owners' lookout. A purchaser should see that his deed is clear before closing a deal." "What owners will be affected?" She spoke with a slight breathlessness.