"Sit down here," said the youth, and took a seat beside him on the log. "Now for goodness sake, tell me what the matter is with you. I know you have bred a new wheat. I saw the grain at your house. I suppose this is a field of it. Why act like a madman about it? I can't steal these plants and so breed the wheat in competition." Battick looked at him solemnly. "You don't know what I have been through, Mr. Strong," he said. "I can see you are carrying on a regular guerrilla warfare against your neighbors, Mr. Battick. But I cannot imagine why." "They have hounded me--robbed me!" exclaimed Battick excitedly. "Who have?" "People you don't know, perhaps. And perhaps you do! I can never be sure that their agents are not around here. You may be one of them, Mr. Strong." "I assure you--" "Or you may be as right as rain. I was too quick just now. But I am suspicious of every person I see trespassing in my fields." "Who could, or would, do this wheat harm?" "Let me tell you! When I bred my Mortgage Lifter Oats I was robbed of my seed, my standing grain was burned just before it was ready for the sickle, and cattle were turned in on my young oats, a field like this, and allowed to graze." "The Mortgage Lifter Oats? The great new oat that Bonsall and Burgess, the seedsmen in Chicago, put out four years ago and which proved such a wonderful cropper?" "The same." "You bred that variety, Mr. Battick?" "Yes. But I do not get the credit for it, nor did I get any of the money--a small fortune--that has been made through its sale. I do not hold Bonsall and Burgess at fault. They honestly bought the new seed of those who robbed me and were themselves aware of no crime having been committed." "I never!" "Yes, Mr. Strong. There are mighty mean people in this world. Where I lived before I came to this place there were other men living around me who gave some attention to the selection and breeding of new varieties of seed. You see, that clergyman who years ago made a clear twenty thousand dollars by breeding a famous muskmelon started us all to hunting for new types of vegetables, fruits, and grains. "Rivalries arose in my neighborhood, of course. But I thought they were friendly rivalries. We even talked over our discoveries at the Grange meetings. I had made a study of plant life, and I gave little lectures--the more fool me!--to the boys and girls who were interested enough to come together at the schoolhouse to listen. I had no idea my neighbors would steal." "You don't mean to say they did?" "Exactly. And some of the very boys I had tried to interest and help were the ones who broke down my fence and turned the cattle into my young oats. That was so I should be unable to raise a crop of the new oats that year and so fail to take advantage of the Mortgage Lifter being advertised by the seedsmen. You understand that all big money is made on new seeds in the first and second seasons, don't you?"