I can make my living in the practice of the business almost anywhere from New Mexico north to the Canadian line.

I flatter myself that I am pretty good at it," and John Armitage smiled and took a cigarette from a box on the table and lighted it.
Dick Claiborne was greatly interested in what Armitage had said, and he struggled between an inclination to encourage further confidence and a feeling that he should, for Shirley's sake, make it clear to this young-stranger that it was of no consequence to any member of the Claiborne family who he was or what might be the extent of his lands or the unimpeachable character of his investments.

But it was not so easy to turn aside a fellow who was so big of frame and apparently so sane and so steady of purpose as this Armitage.

And there was, too, the further consideration that while Armitage was volunteering gratuitous information, and assuming an interest in his affairs by the Claibornes that was wholly unjustified, there was also the other side of the matter: that his explanations proceeded from motives of delicacy that were praiseworthy.

Dick was puzzled, and piqued besides, to find that his resources as a big protecting brother were so soon exhausted.