Then this Board of Directors sold you the
mortgage, and you promptly foreclosed it. The shock of this unexpected
move was a severe one on my father; the erroneous report of my death
killed him, and here you are, where you have every legal right in the
world to be. We were never entitled to pity, never entitled to the
half-century of courtesy and consideration we received from the bank.
We met the fate that is bound to overtake impractical dreamers and
non-hustlers in this generation. The Mission Indian disappeared before
the onslaught of the earlier Californians, and the old-time
Californians have had to take a back seat before the onslaught of the
Go-get-'em boys from the Middle West and the East. Presently they,
too, will disappear before the hordes of Japanese that are invading our
state. Perhaps that is progress--the survival of the fittest. _Quien
sabe_?"
He paused and smoked contemplatively. Parker cast a sidelong glance of
curiosity at him, but said nothing, by his silence giving assent to all
that the younger man had said.
"I suppose you wanted the Rancho Palomar," Miguel Farrel suggested,
presently. "I dare say your purchase of this mortgage was not the mere
outgrowth of an altruistic desire to relieve the First National Bank of
El Toro of an annoyance and a burden."
"I think I admire your direct way of speaking, even if I hardly relish
it," Parker answered, good-humoredly.
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