precisely the figure at which
this tract was now offered. It could be parceled out into lots fifty
by one hundred feet at five hundred dollars per lot. Was there any
profit in that?

Lester admitted that there was.

Ross went on, somewhat boastfully, to explain just how real estate
profits were made. It was useless for any outsider to rush into the
game, and imagine that he could do in a few weeks or years what
trained real estate speculators like himself had been working on for a
quarter of a century. There was something in prestige, something in
taste, something in psychic apprehension. Supposing that they went
into the deal, he, Ross, would be the presiding genius. He had a
trained staff, he controlled giant contractors, he had friends in the
tax office, in the water office, and in the various other city
departments which made or marred city improvements. If Lester would
come in with him he would make him some money--how much he would
not say exactly--fifty thousand dollars at the lowest--one
hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand in all likelihood. Would
Lester let him go into details, and explain just how the scheme could
be worked out? After a few days of quiet cogitation, Lester decided to
accede to Mr. Ross's request; he would look into this thing.

CHAPTER XLIX

The peculiarity of this particular proposition was that it had the
basic elements of success. Mr. Ross had the experience and the
judgment which were quite capable of making a success of almost
anything he undertook. He was in a field which was entirely familiar.
He could convince almost any able man if he could get his ear
sufficiently long to lay his facts before him.

Lester was not convinced at first, although, generally speaking, he
was interested in real estate propositions. He liked land. He
considered it a sound investment providing you did not get too much of
it. He had never invested in any, or scarcely any, solely because he
had not been in a realm where real estate propositions were talked of.
As it was he was landless and, in a way, jobless.

He rather liked Mr. Ross and his way of doing business. It was easy
to verify his statements, and he did verify them in several
particulars. There were his signs out on the prairie stretches, and
here were his ads in the daily papers. It seemed not a bad way at all
in his idleness to start and make some money.

The trouble with Lester was that he had reached the time where he
was n