party going
to Venice that evening, and agreed to meet Kate at six o'clock, and
hear more about it.

In the candy shop where they ate, her mind was even more receptive to
tremendous opportunities for acquiring comparative wealth with
practically no initial expense and no effort whatever. Not being
subjected to the distraction of a beauty parlor, Kate forgot to use
her carefully modulated, elocutionary voice, and buzzed with details.

"It's away up in the northern part of the State somewhere, in the
mountains. You know timber land is going to be tremendously
valuable--it is now, in fact. And this tract of beautiful big trees
can be gotten and flumed--or something--down to a railroad that taps
the country. It's in Forest Reserve, you see, and can't be bought by
the lumber companies. I had the professor explain it all to me again,
after I left the Martha, so I could tell you.

"A few of us can club together and take mining claims on the
land--twenty acres apiece. All we have to do is a hundred dollars'
worth of work--just digging holes around on it, or something--every
year till five hundred dollars' worth is done. Then we can get our
deed--or whatever it is--and sell the timber."

"Well, _what_ do you know about _that_!" Marion exclaimed
ecstatically, leaning forward across the little table with her hands
clasped. Nature had given her a much nicer voice than Kate's, and the
trite phrase acquired a pretty distinctiveness just from the way she
said it. "But--would you have to stay five years, Kate?" she added
dubiously.

"No, that's the beauty of it, you can do all the five hundred dollars'
worth in one year, Marion."

"Five hundred dollars' worth of digging holes in the ground!" Marion
gasped, giggling a little. "Good night!"

"Now please wait until you hear the rest of it!" Kate's tone sharpened
a little with impatience. She moved a petulant elbow while a tired
waitress placed two glasses of water and a tiny plate of white and
brown bread upon the table. The minute the girl's back was turned upon
them she cast a cautious eye around the clattering throng and leaned
forward.

"Four men--men with a little capital--are going into it, and pay Fred
and the professor for doing their assessment work. Four five-hundreds
will make two thousand dollars that we'll get out of them, just for
looking after their interests. And we'll have our twenty acres apiece
of timber--and you've no _idea_ what a tremendous lot of money t