projects so
faultlessly in hand that, as he piled up words, he piled up conviction
in the breast of Mr. Harley.

Storri began with China. Being equipped for the conversation--which had
not been so much the result of romantic chance as Mr. Harley might have
supposed--he laid upon the table a square of yellow silk. It was written
over with Chinese characters which, for all Mr. Harley knew, might have
been inscriptions copied from a tea chest. As a matter of truth, they
were genuine. The silk was the record of a concession by the Chinese
Government. It gave Storri, or what company he might form, the privilege
of building a railway across China from east to west. He might select
his port on the Pacific, build his road, and break into Russia on the
west and north at what point best matched the enterprise. Also, it
granted a right to buy land wherever it became necessary, and to own
what wharf and water rights were required. Incidentally, so Storri said,
it permitted gold digging.

"You shall take it to the Chinese legation!" exclaimed Storri. "They
shall translate for you. Yes; it gives gold rights. Gold? There is so
much gold in China that your own California becomes laughable by
comparison. See there," and Storri placed a little leathern pouch on the
table. "There are three ounces. Do you know how they were obtained? I
spread a blanket in the bed of a little stream, and weighted it with
stones so that it lay flat. Then I took a stick, and tossed up the mud
and the sand of that little stream, just above. The muddy water, thick
as paint, flowed over the blanket. In thirty minutes I took my blanket
ashore, and washed from the sediment it had caught and held this
gold--three ounces! Bah! Gold? China is the home of gold! But China and
these concessions are only the beginning."

Storri sketched a steamship line to connect his Chinese railway with
Puget Sound. For this they ought to have a subsidy from the United
States. From Puget they must have a railway to Duluth. On the Great
Lakes, Storri would have a line of steamships.

"Only, we will improve upon those lakes!" cried Storri. "It was that to
carry me to Ottawa."

Then Storri unrolled maps and reports from Canadian engineers which
vouched the plausibility of a ship canal from a deep-water point on that
eastern arm of Lake Huron called Georgian Bay to Toronto on Lake
Ontario.

"It shall be two hundred feet wide," explained Storri, "and thirty feet
deep. The distance