"Never kept much of anything, have you, any of
you? You can call it what you've a mind to, liberality
or shiftlessness. But there's nothing saved
by names. There: it seems as if you never got civilized,
always contemptuous and violent-handed
...it's the blood. I've studied considerable about
you lately; something'll have to be done for the good
of all."

"What is it you want of me?"

"Call in your bad debts," the other promptly responded;
"shake off the worthless lot hanging to
your pocket. Put the money rate back where it belongs.
Why, in days gone by," Valentine Simmons
chuckled, "seventy per cent wasn't out of the way
for a forced loan, forty was just so-so. Ah, Pompey
and me made some close deals. Pompey multiplied
his talents. The County was an open ledger to
him."

"Didn't you ever think of the men who had to
pay you seventy per cent?" Gordon asked, genuinely
curious.

"Certainly," Simmons retorted; "we educated
them, taught 'em thrift. While you are promoting
idleness and loose-living... But this is only an
opening for what I wanted to say. -- I had a letter
last week from the Tennessee and Northern people,
the Buffalo plan has matured, they're pushing the
construction right along."

[[322]]

p321 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p322w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p323

v?