Now Government and State lands are the property of the man who pays for them. Although the clerk's receipt might not give Morrison a valid claim; nevertheless it would afford basis for a lawsuit. Thorpe saw the trap, and interposed.
“Hold on,” he interrupted, “I claim precedence. You can give no receipt for any land in these townships until after my business is transacted. I have reason to believe that this gentleman and myself are both after the same descriptions.”
“What!” shouted Morrison, assuming surprise.
“You will have to await your turn, Mr. Morrison,” said the clerk, virtuous before so many witnesses.
The business man was in a white rage of excitement.
“I insist on my application being filed at once!” he cried waving his check. “I have the money right here to pay for every acre of it; and if I know the law, the first man to pay takes the land.”
He slapped the check down on the rail, and hit it a number of times with the flat of his hand. Thorpe turned and faced him with a steel look in his level eyes.
“Mr. Morrison,” he said, “you are quite right. The first man who pays gets the land; but I have won the first chance to pay. You will kindly step one side until I finish my business with Mr. Smithers here.”
“I suppose you have the amount actually with you,” said the clerk, quite respectfully, “because if you have not, Mr. Morrison's claim will take precedence.”
“I would hardly have any business in a land office, if I did not know that,” replied Thorpe, and began his dictation of the description as calmly as though his inside pocket contained the required amount in bank bills.
Thorpe's hopes had sunk to zero. After all, looking at the matter dispassionately, why should he expect Carpenter to trust him, a stranger, with so large a sum? It had been madness. Only the blind confidence of the fighting man led him further into the struggle. Another would have given up, would have stepped aside from the path of this bona-fide purchaser with the money in his hand.
But Thorpe was of the kind that hangs on until the last possible second, not so much in the expectation of winning, as in sheer reluctance to yield. Such men shoot their last cartridge before surrendering, swim the last ounce of strength from their arms before throwing them up to sink, search coolly until the latest moment for a way from the burning building,--and sometimes come face to face with miracles.