"My name's Belding. I want to see this Mr. Chase," said Belding, gruffly.
Slow-witted as Belding was, and absorbed in his own feelings, he yet saw plainly that his advent was disturbing to these men. They looked alarmed, exchanged glances, and then quickly turned to him. One of them, a tall, rugged man with sharp face and shrewd eyes and white hair, got up and offered his hand.
"I'm Chase, senior," he said. "My son Radford Chase is here somewhere. You're Belding, the line inspector, I take it? I meant to call on you."
He seemed a rough-and-ready, loud-spoken man, withal cordial enough.
"Yes, I'm the inspector," replied Belding, ignoring the proffered hand, "and I'd like to know what in the hell you mean by taking up land claims—staked ground that belongs to my rangers?"
"Land claims?" slowly echoed Chase, studying his man. "We're taking up only unclaimed land."
"That's a lie. You couldn't miss the stakes."
"Well, Mr. Belding, as to that, I think my men did run across some staked ground. But we recognize only squatters. If your rangers think they've got property just because they drove a few stakes in the ground they're much mistaken. A squatter has to build a house and live on his land so long, according to law, before he owns it."
This argument was unanswerable, and Belding knew it.
"According to law!" exclaimed Belding. "Then you own up; you've jumped our claims."