"There's no doubt about it, Dell," Bancroft rejoined, his manner becoming more earnest and his tones more persuasive as he went on. "Curt Conrad is a fighter from the word 'go,' and he seems to have started out with the intention of doing you up. He'll sure do you a lot of damage if you can't find some way of making him change his mind. He's popular,--the sort that everybody likes, you know,--and he's always enthusiastic and cocksure, so that he has a good deal of influence of his own, whether or not he's acting for Ned Castleton. And as people generally believe he is it amounts to the same thing." "We must get at him some way," said Baxter earnestly, his cold eyes watchful of his companion's manner and expression. "Hasn't he done something that would give us a hold on him?" "No, there's nothing in that lead. I've tried argument, and you might as well talk to a cyclone." "How about money?" Bancroft shook his head decisively. "That would be the worst mistake you could make. He wouldn't touch it and he'd roar about it everywhere. The fact is, Dell, we'll have to get rid of his opposition some way. I've done everything I can, and now I'll have to put it up to you." "Well, I'll think it over," said Baxter, rising and looking at his watch. "I'll see you again about that mine business, while I'm here, and I want to talk with you about a _paisano_ ranch, up above Socorro, there's a chance of our getting. I think we'll be able to get our development company going in less than a year. When it's organized, Aleck, I want you to be president of it." "I don't know about that," Bancroft replied slowly, an uneasy recollection of some of Lucy's freely expressed ideas coming into his mind. "I may prefer to stay in the background, as a silent partner, as our arrangement is now." "It would be good for the company to have you at its head; your reputation would be an asset," Baxter objected persuasively. "By the way, Dell, did you foreclose on a man named Melgares, José Maria Melgares, a month or two ago?" "Melgares? Yes; and I was especially easy on him; let him have three months' extra time. But I had to come down on him finally. Why?" "He's here in Golden now, and he's been roaring about it. He came down here from the Mogollons, where it's likely he'd been doing some horse-stealing. And I guess he's been lifting chickens and things out of people's back-yards since he's been here." "Next thing he'll be getting arrested," Baxter chuckled, "and I'll have to defend him--for nothing. These greasers all seem to think I'm a heaven-sent protector for 'em all, no matter what they do. So long, Aleck; I'll see you again before I leave town."