own, as I
see it."

"Why don't you buy some yourself?"

"I don't want any more money," said Clark very simply, "but, gentlemen,
I don't assume that every one feels that way. From this window I can
see farm lands that can be bought for forty dollars an acre on easy
terms, and how would you feel if, after two or three years, it changed
hands at a thousand? I merely mention this because I've seen it take
place elsewhere. Now I'm not going to say that it's going to be worth
a thousand, and I'm not persuading you. I never persuade any one, at
least," he added with a little smile, "not in St. Marys. I only draw
your attention to the circumstances and leave the rest of it, of
course, to your own judgment."

"Then you suggest that we buy?" came in Dibbott.

"Nothing of the kind. It's a matter of indifference to me whether you
gentlemen do the buying or some one else. All I can prophesy is, that
it's going to be done, but not by me or my associates. We have enough
to occupy our attention for some time to come."

Manson edged a bit nearer. "The idea is that while you're investing
millions, we take no risk in investing hundreds, eh?"

"I made no such inference. You will remember that so far as St. Marys
is concerned I have depended on the town for nothing since my first
proposal was accepted."

Dibbott nodded. "That's right. I reckon we're going to be a
residential suburb to the works."

Clark smiled a little. "I lean on just four things, and St. Marys
supplied none of them."

"What are they?"

"Natural laws, physical geography, ample financial backing, and the
need of the world for certain manufactured products. And," he
concluded quizzically, "you'd better forget that I said anything about
land."

There was something suggestively final about this, and presently the
group moved off, loitering across the flat, untenanted fields. Manson
was in the rear, decapitating daisies with his heavy oak stick. A few
minutes later Clark looked up and saw the chief constable's bulk
filling the doorway. He waited placidly.

"Did you mean just what you said about that land?" Manson's voice
sounded a little sheepish, "because I've got a bit saved up, and--"

"Mr. Manson," struck in Clark, "you may approve of me personally, but I
know that you don't believe in my project. You've been at no pains to
conceal that and I respect you for it, but that being the case why
should you, of all men, be interested in land?