iom with the respect due one who has
met and grappled successfully with his one great chance. His well-fed
appearance, his genial, contented smile, gave an impression of
prosperity even when his linen was frayed and his elbows glossy; now in
the latest achievement of a good tailor it was difficult to conceive him
as being anything less than a millionaire.

"And this," Symes looked squarely in each eager eye in turn, "this,
gentlemen, is such an opportunity."

The timid voice of a man who had made a hundred thousand from a patent
fly-trap broke the awed silence.

"It sounds good."

"_Sounds_ good! It _is_ good." Mr. Symes clenched his huge fist and
emphasized the declaration with a blow upon the table which made the
dishes rattle.

"Think of it," he went on, "two hundred thousand acres that can be made
to bloom like the rose. An earthly paradise of our own making." The
flowery figures were borrowed from a railroad folder but Mr. Symes had
grasped them with the avidity of true genius and made them his own. "And
how?"

The waiter starting away with a tray load of dishes stopped to learn.

"By the mere introduction of water upon the most fertile soil in the
world! Is there anything like it--a miracle worker!" Mr. Symes shut one
eye and peered into an empty bottle. "And how can this be done?" He
answered himself. "By the expenditure of a ridiculously small amount of
money; the absurd sum of $250,000. And look at the returns!"

By the intentness of their gaze it was evident that all were willing
enough to look. Symes lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper and swept
the air with his outspread fingers.

"A clean million!"

The man who made only six thousand a year selling plumbers' supplies,
gulped.

"But who's goin' to buy it?" It was the timid voice of the Fly-trap
King.

"_Buy it!_" The questioner withered before Symes's scorn. "Buy it? Why,
the world is land-hungry--crying for land!--and water. But I've
considered all that; I've arranged for it," Mr. Symes went on with a
touch of impatience. "We'll colonize it. We'll import Russian Jews to
raise sugar-beets for the sugar-beet factory which we will establish.
They will buy it for $50 an acre cash or $60 an acre with 10 per cent.
interest upon the deferred payments. It's very simple."

"But--but--I thought Russian Jews went in mostly for collar buttons,
shoe-strings and lace--mercantile enterprises--commercial natures, you
know? Besides, where they going to