himself with a
burst of sincerity, exclaiming: "Sure, old man, if I had nine thousand
I'd give it to you for the block, that's straight goods." He felt that
he was conscientious in saying this. It was true he would have given
nine thousand if he had had it. For that matter he might have given ten
or twelve.

"Can't we settle the whole matter to-day?" said Vandover. "Right
here--now. I'm sick of it, sick of everything. Let's get it done with."

Geary nearly bounded from his seat. He had been wondering how he might
accomplish this very thing. "All right," he said briskly, "no reason in
waiting." He had seen to it that he should be prepared to close the sale
the moment that Vandover was willing. Long ago, when he had first had
the idea of buying the block, he had spent a day in the offices of the
county recorder, the tax collector, and the assessor, assuring himself
of the validity of the title, and only two days ago he had gone over the
matter again in order to be sure that no encumbrances had been added to
the block in the meanwhile. He found nothing; the title was clear.

"Isn't this rather rushing the thing through?" he asked. "Maybe you
might regret it afterward. Don't you want to take two or three days to
think it over?"

"No."

"Sure now?" persisted Geary.

"But I've _got_ to sell before three days," answered Vandover.
"Otherwise he'll want ten thousand."

"That's a fact," admitted the other. "Well," he went on, "if your mind's
made up, why--we can go right ahead. As I say, there's no reason for
waiting; better take up Wade while he's in the mood for it. You see, he
hasn't signed any proposition as yet, and he might go back on us."
Vandover drew a long breath and got up slowly, heavily, from the couch,
saying:

"What's the odds to me what I sell for? _I_ don't get the money."

"Well, what do you say if we go right down to a notary's office and put
this thing right through," Geary suggested.

"Come on, then."

"Have you got your abstract here, the abstract of the block?" Vandover
nodded. "Better bring it along, then," said Geary.

The office of the notary adjoined those of the firm of Beale & Storey;
in fact, he was in a sense an attache of the great firm and transacted a
great deal of legal business for them. Vandover and Geary fell upon him
in an idle moment. A man had come to regulate the water filter, which
took the place of an ice cooler in a corner of one of the anterooms, and
while he was enga