Hunnicott sprang up and slapped his leg. "By Jupiter, Kent! They are selling--every last man of them!" "Precisely. And when they have sold all they have to sell?" "They'll turn us loose--drop us--quit booming the town, if your theory is the right one. But say, Kent, I can't believe it, you know. It's too big a thing to be credited to Jim Guilford and his handful of subs in the railroad office. Why, it's all along the line, everywhere." "I'm telling you that Guilford isn't the man. He is only a cog in the wheel. There is a bigger mind than his behind it." "I can't help it," Hunnicott protested. "I don't believe that any man or clique could bring this thing about unless we were really on the upturn." "Very good; believe what you please, but do as I tell you. Sell every foot of Gaston dirt that stands in your name; and while you are about it, sell those six lots for me in Subdivision Five. More than that, do it pretty soon." Hunnicott promised, in the brokerage affair, at least. Then he switched the talk to the receivership. "Still up in the air, are you, in the railroad grab case?" Kent nodded. "No news of MacFarlane?" "Plenty of it. His health is still precarious, and will likely remain so until the spoilsmen have picked the skeleton clean." Hunnicott was silent for a full minute. Then he said: "Say, Kent, hasn't it occurred to you that they are rather putting meat on the bones instead of taking it off? Their bills for betterments must be out of sight." It had occurred to Kent, but he gave his own explanation of Major Guilford's policy in a terse sentence. "It is a part of the bluff; fattening the thing a little before they barbecue it." "I suppose so. It's a pity we don't live a little farther back in the history of the world: say at a time when we could hire MacFarlane's doctor to obliterate the judge, and no questions asked." Who can explain how it is that some jesting word, trivial and purposeless it may be, will fire a hidden train of thought which was waiting only for some chance spark? "Obliterate the judge," said Hunnicott in grim jest; and straightway Kent saw possibilities; saw a thing to be done, though not yet the manner of its doing. "If you'll excuse me," he said abruptly to his companion, "I believe I'll try to catch the Flyer back to the capital. I came down to see about selling those lots of mine, but if you will undertake it for me----" "Of course," said Hunnicott; "I'll be only too glad. You've ten minutes: can you make it?"