ow we saw our way
to rake a good many dollars out of that valley, but when Savine got in
ahead we just sat tight and watched him, ready to act if he found the
undertaking too big for him. It seems to me that has happened, which
explains my visit to-day. We might be open to buy some of those
conditional lands from you."

"They may never be ours to sell, though I hope for the contrary,"
Geoffrey replied.

"Exactly," said the other. "That is why we're only ready to offer you
out-district virgin forest value for the portions colored blue in this
plan. In other words, we speculate by advancing you money on very
uncertain security."

Geoffrey laughed after a glance at the plan. "You have a pretty taste!
After giving you all the best for a tithe of its future value, where do
we come in?"

"On the rest," declared Shackleby, coolly. "We would pay down the
money now, and advance you enough on interest to place you beyond all
risks in completing operations. Though you might get more for the
land, without this assistance, you might get nothing, and it will be a
pretty heavy check. I suppose I needn't say it was not until lately
that we decided to meet you this way."

"By your leave!" broke in Thomas Savine, who had been scribbling
figures on a scrap of paper, which he passed to Geoffrey. It bore a
few lines scrawled across the foot of it: "Value absurdly low, but it
might be a good way to hedge against total loss, and we could level up
the average on the rest. What do you think?"

Geoffrey grasped a pen, and the paper went back with the brief answer,
"That it would be a willful sacrifice of Miss Savine's future."

"Suppose we refuse?" he asked, and Shackleby stroked his mustache
meditatively before he made answer:

"Don't you think that would be foolish? You see, we were not unanimous
by a long way on this policy, and several of our leaders agree with me
that we had better stick to our former one. It's a big scheme, and
accidents will happen, however careful one may be. Then there's the
risk of new conditions being imposed upon you by the authorities.
Besides, you have a time limit to finish in, and mightn't do it,
especially without the assistance we could in several ways render you.
You can't have a great many dollars left either--see?"

"I do," said Geoffrey, with an ominous glitter in his eyes. "You
needn't speak more plainly. Accidents, no doubt of the kind you refer
to, have happened already. They