His reasoning
is absolutely flawless. However, I am not going to pay him any
half-million dollars. I might, in a pinch, consider paying him half
that, but--"
"Would a quit-claim deed be worth half a million to you, Dad?"
"As a matter of cold business, it would. Are you quite certain he was
serious?"
"Oh, quite serious."
"He's a disappointment, Kay. I had hoped he would prove to be a
worth-while opponent, for certainly he is a most likable young man.
However--" He smothered a yawn with his hand, selected a cigar
from his case, carefully cut off the end and lighted it. "Poor devil,"
he murmured, presently, and rose, remarking that he might as well take
a turn or two around the farmyard as a first aid to digestion.
Once outside, he walked to the edge of the mesa and gazed down the
moon-lit San Gregorio. Half a mile away he saw a moving black spot on
the white ribbon of road. "Confound you," he murmured, "you're going
to get some of my tail feathers, but not quite the handful you
anticipate. You cannot stand the acid test, Don Mike, and I'm glad to
know that."
CHAPTER XXIII
As Farrel approached the Mission de la Madre Dolorosa, a man in the
rusty brown habit of a Franciscan friar rose from a bench just outside
the entrance to the Mission garden.
"My son," he said, in calm, paternal accents and speaking in Spanish,
"I knew you would come to see your old friends when you had laid aside
the burdens of the day.
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