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Updated: May 13, 2025
"I should like to go back to Somasco now," she said. "I am a little tired, and I know that he will win." A wagon was awaiting them, and Forel several times came near overturning it in his excitement as he drove them home to the ranch. It was a week later when one evening the leading inhabitants of the district assembled in Somasco ranch.
"Then I'm afraid I can't assist you," said the other man. "It is necessary to avoid any probability of complications in my business." Again a glint crept into Alton's eyes, but it vanished, and he spoke quietly. "I think you're straight," he said. "Well, I'm direct too, and I'm going right back to my ranch to-morrow. Anybody from that district will tell you all about Alton of Somasco.
"I'm going up to find the silver, but the ranch and all that's in it is at your service just as long as it pleases you. If all goes as I expect it, I shall be back in a month or so, and would be glad to find you still at Somasco. Then, if you are ready, Charley and I will go back to the old country with you.
They were also men of mark, though several of them who now held large issues in very capable hands had commenced life as wielders of the axe. Most of them had heard of Alton of the Somasco Consolidated, and those who had not listened with attention when he spoke, for it was evident that they and the rancher had the same cause at heart.
"A capable man?" said Deringham quietly. "Oh, yes," said the other. "He's capable, so far as he sees, but the trouble is he doesn't see quite far enough. Now, there's not room enough for two men with notions round about Somasco, and a one-horse rancher can't fight men with money, so Alton's got hold of a good deal bigger contract than he can carry through.
A man stood up with a light in his eyes. "Then you've hit the thing plumb where you wanted," he said. "Whose standing in with Alton of Somasco, boys?" There was a roar this time, and then a silence as if the assembly felt that they had done an unseemly thing, but it was evident that they were all of them ready. "I figure you've got a programme?" said somebody. "I have," said Alton.
"Considering our present credit, that is somewhat curious." "There it is, anyway," said Forel, smiling. "There are, it seems, still people who believe in Somasco and you, but we'll see what we can fix up to-morrow." Alton stood up and straightened himself to his full height, while his voice trembled a little as he said, "Then I think whoever it is is going to save us yet."
He sat down to wait for Horton considerably disturbed in mind, and his anxieties would not have been diminished had he known that Alton was starting for Somasco by the Atlantic express that afternoon.
"I left Okanagan and Seaforth with enough of the boys to hold the claim sitting tight," he said. "Talked to the chiefs in Victoria, and showed them Damer's testimony. They told me that nobody had a patent, and that everything that had been done was informal, and because they would probably have to submit the case to Ottawa it would take time for them to come to a decision. And now for Somasco.
Within twelve months you'll see a new wagon-road cut south towards the big river, and inside two years the surveyors running the line for a new railroad into the Somasco valley." The men stared at the speaker, and there was a murmur, almost of doubt, and wonder.
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