"Aren't you talking like one of those German socialists?" "On the contrary. I quite fancy I'm talking like a business man. Now, you want to realize on those cattle before the winter takes the flesh off them, and extinguish the bank loan with what you get for them." Clavering's face darkened. "That would strip the place, and I'd have to borrow to stock again." "You'd have to run a light stock for a year or two." "It wouldn't suit me to do anything that would proclaim my poverty just now," said Clavering. "Then you'll have to do it by and by. The interest on the bond is crippling you." "Well." Clavering lighted another cigar. "I told you to be straight. Go right on. Tell me just what you would do if the place was in your hands." "Sell out those cattle and take the big loan up. Clear off the imported horses and pedigree brood mares. You have been losing more dollars than many a small rancher makes over them the last few years." "I like good horses round the place," Clavering said languidly. "The trouble," said Hopkins, "is that you can't afford to have them. Then, I would cut down my personal expenses by at least two-thirds. The ranch can't stand them. Do you know what you have been spending in the cities?" "No. I gave you a bundle of bills so you could find it out." Hopkins' smile was almost contemptuous. "I guess you had better burn them when I am through. I'll mention one or two items. One hundred dollars for flowers; one thousand in several bills from Chicago jewellers! The articles would count as an asset. Have you got them?" "I haven't," said Clavering. "They were for a lady." "Well," said Hopkins, "you know best; but one would have fancied there was more than one of them from the bills. Here's another somewhat curious item: hats--I guess they came from Paris--and millinery, two hundred dollars' worth of them!" A little angry light crept into Clavering's eyes. "If I hadn't been so abominably careless you wouldn't have seen those bills. I meant to put them down as miscellaneous and destroy the papers. Well, I've done with that extravagance, any way, and it's to hear the truth I'm paying you quite a big fee. If I go on just as I'm doing, how long would you give me?" "Two years. Then the bank will put the screw on you. The legislature may pull you up earlier, but I can tell you more when I've squared up to-morrow." There was a curious look in Clavering's dark eyes, but he laughed again. "I guess that's about enough. But I'll leave you to it now," he said. "It's quite likely I'll have got out of the difficulty before one of those years is over." He went out, and a few minutes later stopped as he passed the one big mirror in the ranch, and surveyed himself critically for a moment with a dispassionate interest that was removed from vanity. Then he nodded as if contented. "With Torrance to back me it might be done," he said. "Liberty is sweet, but I don't know that it's worth at least fifty thousand dollars!" XII