"You are Roger Payne?"
"Sit down!" In one leap Roger was upon the verandah facing the stranger. "Sit down!" he repeated. "My business is with Senator Fairclothe."
"My business——"
"Sit down," said Roger softly, and the stranger sat.
"Senator Fairclothe," continued Payne, "there seems to be a little misunderstanding about the title to the land I bought from you."
"You bought no land from me, young man."
"You are president of the Prairie Highlands Association?"
"I was. I severed that connection some months ago."
"Before you wrote me those letters?"
"No, the day after I wrote you the last letter of our correspondence. I had no connection with the company you mention at the time you made your purchase. I had discovered that the Prairie Highlands Association was not upon a firm basis. Of the land which they sold not a foot was owned by them. Their original title was false and invalid. The company now is defunct."