If the services of a broker had a casual connection to a sale and purchase of land after direct negotiations between the parties, he is not debarred from recovering an agreed commission because the negotiations were not continuous, nor by the mere lapse of time before the sale was consummated, nor by the fact that, in the meantime, the seller had given options to others. Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co. v. Gamble, 201 F. 329, 119 C. C. A. 567.