"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Why, I personally think it's a certainty that you will be dispossessed
here. If you wait for the law to put you off, you'll have no right to
take up another homestead--your right will be destroyed."
"What good would a homestead right do me these days?" demanded Samuels.
"There's nothing left."
"New lands are thrown open constantly," said Bob, "and it's better,
other things being equal, to have a right than to want it. On the other
hand, if you voluntarily relinquish this claim, your right to take up
another homestead is still good."
At the mention of relinquishment the old mountaineer shied like a colt.
With great patience Bob took up the other side of the question. The
elements of the problem were now all laid down--patriotism, the
certainty of ultimate loss, the advisability of striving to save rights,
the desire to do one's part toward bringing the land grabbers in line.
Remained only so to apply the pressure of all these cross-motives that
they should finally bring the old man to the point of definite action.
Bob wrestled with the demons of selfishness, doubt, suspicion, pride,
stubbornness, anger, acquisitiveness that swarmed in the old man's
spirit, as Christian with Apollyon.
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