In the Foreword White writes: The author has written this story mainly from personal experience and recollection. He has, however, used freely two books dealing with land boom days. These are T.S. Van Dyke's Millionaires of a Day; and T.R. Sanford's The Bursting of a Boom. From Van Dyke's really classic description the psychological sequence has been followed very closely; and from the Sanford book some of the auctioneer patter has been lifted bodily. The story begins: Colonel Richard Peyton stepped to the edge of his veranda and looked up into the early morning through the branches of his overarching live oak trees. He was very proud of those trees, for they were taller and more wide spread and branchy than any other live oaks in Arguello County; and that is saying a good deal.