get their money for the first
payment?"

Symes curbed his irritation at the piffling objections of the Fly-trap
King and responded tolerantly.

"We'll organize a bank and loan 'em the money. If they fail to come
through at the specified time the land will return to the company and
we'll have their improvements, making them a small allowance for same,
at our discretion. We'll lay out a town and build an Opera House, get
electric light and street railway franchises--a million? Why, there's
millions in sight when you consider the possibilities."

The painting of the roseate picture had flushed Mr. Symes's cheeks;
already "Symesville" or "Symeston" rose clear before his mental vision,
while his listeners endeavored to calculate their share of the millions
when proportioned in accordance with the investment of all their
available cash. Certainly the returns were temptingly large and the
least optimistic among them believed he could convince his wife of the
perfect safety of the investment, the success of which was practically
assured by the fact that Andy P. Symes for an infinitesimal salary, as
compared to his ability, was willing to assume the management.

A slender, blond gentleman, who derived a satisfactory income from the
importation of Scotch woollens and Irish linens, confessed that for
years he had cherished a secret desire to do something for mankind,
providing he was assured of a reasonable return upon his investment,
and, with the King of Brobdingnag, believed that the man who made, say,
two sugar-beets grow where only one grew before, rendered an
incalculable service to the human race.

The other guests expressed their admiration of the woollen importer's
high sentiments, and while they admitted that no such noble impulse
governed them they subscribed generously for stock in the company which
was formed then and there to apply for the segregation of 200,000 acres
of irrigable land.

Mr. Symes talked familiarly of State Land Boards, water rights, flood
water, ditches, laterals, subsoil and seepage, the rotation of crops and
general productiveness until even the cynical politician who controlled
the negro vote in his ward began to realize that it was a liberal
education merely to know Andy P. Symes, not to mention the distinction
of being associated with him in business.

Inspired by the prospect of once again handling real money, Andy P.
Symes talked with an earnestness and fluency which cast a hypnotic