"Well," said Grant playfully, "you don't mind their saying that you're
NOT the original pioneer of Tasajara, for it's true; nor that that
fellow 'Lige Curtis disappeared suddenly, for he did, if I remember
rightly. But there's nothing in that to invalidate your rights to
Tasajara, to say nothing of your five years' undisputed possession."
"Of course there's no LEGAL question," said Harcourt almost sharply.
"But as a matter of absurd report, I may want to contradict their
insinuations. And YOU remember all the circumstances, don't you?"
"I should think so! Why, my dear fellow, I've told it everywhere!--here,
in New York, Newport, and in London; by Jove, it's one of my best
stories! How a company sent me out with a surveyor to look up a railroad
and agricultural possibilities in the wilderness; how just as I found
them--and a rather big thing they made, too--I was set afloat by a
flood and a raft, and drifted ashore on your bank, and practically
demonstrated to you what you didn't know and didn't dare to hope
for--that there could be a waterway straight to Sidon from the
embarcadero. I've told what a charming evening we had with you and
your daughters in the old house, and how I returned your hospitality by
giving you a tip about the railroad; and how you slipped out while we
were playing cards, to clinch the bargain for the land with that drunken
fellow, 'Lige Curtis"--
"What's that?" interrupted Harcourt, quickly.
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