"What is it doing to your land?" Jerry asked.
"Ruining it," Joe replied, calmly.
"And you don't go mad?" the girl cried, impulsively.
"We don't go mad on the Sage Brush till the last resort, and we don't often come to that. When we can't do one thing, out West, we do another. That's all there is to it." The smile was in his eyes again as Joe said this.
"Do you know who owns this ground now?" Jerry tried to ask as carelessly as possible.
"An estate back in Pennsylvania, I believe," Joe replied.
"What is it worth?" Jerry's voice was hardly audible.
"Look at it. What do you think it is worth, as a whole, or cut up into town lots for a summer resort?" Joe demanded.
In spite of his calmness there was a harshness in his voice, and his eyes were stern.
Jerry twisted her white hands helplessly. "I don't know—anything worth knowing," she said, faintly, looking full into the young man's face for the first time.