“Just because you’re going to have that much taken away from you by and by.”
Clavering’s laugh was quietly scornful. “By the homestead-boys?”
“By the legislature of this State. The law is against you holding what you’re doing now.”
“We make what law there is out here.”
“Well,” said Hopkins, coolly, “I guess you’re not going to do it long. You know the maxim about fooling the people. It can’t be done.”
“Aren’t you talking like one of those German socialists?”
“On the contrary. I quite fancy I’m talking like a business man. Now, you want to realize on those cattle before the winter takes the flesh off them, and extinguish the bank loan with what you get for them.”
Clavering’s face darkened. “That would strip the place, and I’d have to borrow to stock again.”
“You’d have to run a light stock for a year or two.”
“It wouldn’t suit me to do anything that would proclaim my poverty just now,” said Clavering.