"No, I don't want it to run that long. The interest in a hundred years
would amount to too much; but I'll make it five years. . . . All
right, Dickson, instruct your lawyer chap to make out the papers and
I'll be up Monday to close with you."

He hung up the receiver and turned to meet her glistening eyes fixed
upon him in ecstasy. "It's better than all right," he assured her. He
was more enthusiastic about this than he had ever been about any
business deal in his life, that is, more openly enthusiastic, for Miss
Josephine's enthusiasm was contagion itself. He took her arm with a
swing, and they hurried into the writing-room, which was deserted for
the time being on account of the mail having just come in. Sam placed
a chair for her and they sat down at the table.

"I want to figure a minute," said he. "Now that I have actual
possession of the property, in place of a mere option, I can go at the
thing differently. First of all, when I go up Monday I'll see my
engineer, and on Tuesday morning I'll bring him down here with me.
Then I shall secure permission from the county to alter that road and
we'll build the dam. That will cost very little in comparison to the
whole improvement. Then, and not till then, I'll get out my stock
prospectus, and I'll drive prospective investors down here to look at
Lake Jo. I'll be almost in position to dictate terms."

"Isn't that fine!" she exclaimed. "And then I suppose you can
secure--control," she ventured anxiously.

"Yes, I think I can if I want it," he assured her.

"I'm so glad," she said gravely. "I'm so very glad."

"Really, though, I have a big notion to see if I can't finance the
entire project myself. I'm quite sure I can get Dickson to give me a
clear deed to that land merely on my unsupported note. If I can do
that I can erect all the buildings on progressive mortgages. Roadways
and engineering work of course I'll have to pay for, and then I can
finance a subsidiary operating company to rent the plant from the
original company, and can retain stock in both of them. I'll figure
that out both ways."

It was all Greek to her, this talk, but she knitted her brows in an
earnest effort to understand, and crowded close to him to look over the
figures he was putting down. The touch of her arm against his own
threw out his calculations entirely. He could not add a row of figures
to save his life.

"I'll go over the financial end of this later on," he s