Evening star., 1914-11-22

appeared ana declared n1lI1SeI.
Son. he said sharply, I'm goin' to see
if nothin else. When come here want to
see Oakes-do you understand that2'
The boy looked into the old mans face
and disappeared In a few minutes he re-
turned accompanied by the busy young man
who once before had ignored him; but now
this young man was very polite, and studied
the visitors eyes with much care before say
ing he would see what could be done about
it, and departed. There was another wait,
and man in the uniform of private officer
appeared and asked the visitor curtly what
he wanted to see Mr.. Oakes for. In spite of
his anger Honest Joe saw that this man pro-
posed to give him an impartial hearing He
began to explain that the wanted Mr.. Oakes
was friend of his in the old days. The Of
ficer looked troubled and cut him short. He
too disappeared.
THAT old guy out there's no crank" he
snorted contemptuously, as he made his
report to the clerk who had summoned him.
"You fellers here get scared stiff every time
you see somebody who looks different from
everybody else. Quickest and easiest way
to get rid of that old cuss is to let him see the
boss, tell what he's come for, get turned
down, and then he'll go peaceable. don't
want to chuck that poor old rube out for
nOth1n at all.
TEN minutes later the youth that guarded
the door appeared. "Mr. Oakes will see
you for five minutes. Come this way"
Honest Joe's heart leaped with joy. Surely
Toluse would listen to him longer than five
minutes could he but reach him! And then
he was shocked to a standstill; for he found
himself in luxurious office, staring at a
clean-cut, crisp-looking man of about thirty
five, who swung round toward him and said:
am Mr.. Oakes What do you wish?'
1t took Honest Joe nearly minute to
recover himself, and then he said, @You're
Mr.. Oakes? Pshaw! They's some mistake.
The man want to see is heap older. It's
Thomas Naples Oakes l want to talk to.
"That," said the young man 1mpat1ently,
3is my father. He is in Europe. | attend
to everything when he is absent, and most
of the time when he is here. If 1t is anything
of business nature, and he were here, he
would probably refer you to me. Now what
is it you wish, Mr.. -"
aBarnes-Joe Barnes from Caballeros.
The younger man stared at him steadily
for an instant, and then smiled little to
himself at does seem to me that | have
heard my father speak of you. But that's
not quite the name. Do they call you"
@Maybe he said Honest Joe
The young man smiled more broadly, and
with more kindly air directed his visitor
to seat, into which, distressed beyond
measure, disappointed, tired, the old man
sunk All his trip had come to this, that he
must tell his plans to strange and probably
unsympathetic ears! This younger man in
front of him was development of new
times, new ideas, where old friendships car
ried no weight, and all was measured by dol
lars. But surely there must be some traits
of the old blood here! This must be son of
the father, and moreover he could do moth
ing else than try to explain his proposals,
now that Toluse was far beyond reach.
He rallied himself to the effort.
"It's about an irrigation scheme, he said
steadily. "I've been watching canyon out
there for long time, and seen the land set
tie and get valuable, and always thought
how easy it d be to build a reservoir up there
in Candle Pass to water maybe hundred
thousand acres of land. I've taken up the
place that would do for reservoir as a home
stead, and I've got options for dollar an
acre on lot of other land we'd need. Also
got an engineer to say how much he thinks
the dam could be built for, and, what with
spring freshets and the creek, he opines we
could make good thing out of it. figured
out it ought to pay about ten per cent. on all
the money it costs"
He paused and rested his keen old eyes on