existing conditions. "Your wife's estate controls
about three thousand acres of timber," he pronounced.
"What will you take for them?"

"How much do you control?" Gordon asked.

"About twenty-five hundred at present."

Gordon paused, then, "Lettice will take thirty dollars
an acre."

"Why!" the other protested, "Pompey bought
them for little or nothing. You're after over two
hundred per cent, increase."

"What do you figure to get out of yours?"

"That doesn't concern us now. I've had to put
this through -- a tremendous thing for Greenstream,
a lasting benefit -- entirely by myself. I will have
to guarantee a wicked profit outside; I stand alone
to lose a big sum. I'll give you ten dollars for the
options."

Gordon rose. "I'll see the railroad people myself,"
he observed; "and find out what I can do
there."

"Hold on," Simmons waved him back to his
chair. "If there's too much talk the thing will get
out. You know these thick skulls around here --
at the whisper of transportation you couldn't cut a
sapling with a gold axe. It took managing to interest
the Tennessee and Northern; they are going
through to Buffalo; a Greenstream branch is only
a side issue to them." He paused, thinking.

[[219]]

p218 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p219w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p220

v?