isfied to cut it up into lots and do what is
fair--"

"Cut it up into nothing! Man alive, do you suppose the Siowitha people
would let him? They've only a few thousand acres; they've _got_ to
control that land. What good is their club without it? Do you imagine
they'd let a town grow up on three sides of their precious
game-preserve? And, besides, I'll bet you that half of their streams and
lakes take rise on other people's property--and that Neergard knows
it--the Dutch fox!"

"That sort of--of business--that kind of coercion, does not appeal to
me," said Selwyn gravely.

"Then you'd better go into something besides business in this town,"
observed Austin, turning red. "Good Lord, man, where would my Loan and
Trust Company be if we never foreclosed, never swallowed a good thing
when we see it?"

"But you don't threaten people."

Austin turned redder. "If people or corporations stand in our way and
block progress, of course we threaten. Threaten? Isn't the threat of
punishment the very basis of law and order itself? What are laws for?
And we have laws, too--laws, under the law--"

"Of the State of New Jersey," said Selwyn, laughing. "Don't flare up,
Austin; I'm probably not cut out for a business career, as you
point out--otherwise I would not have consulted you. I know
some laws--including 'The Survival of the Fittest,' and the
'Chain-of-Destruction'; and I have read the poem beginning

"'Big bugs have little bugs to bite 'em.'

"That's all right, too; but speaking of laws, I'm always trying to
formulate one for my particular self-government; and you don't mind, do
you?"

"No," said Gerard, much amused, "I don't mind. Only when you talk
ethics--talk sense at the same time."

"I wish I knew how," he said.

They discussed Neergard's scheme for a little while longer; Austin,
shrewd and cautious, declined any personal part in the financing of the
deal, although he admitted the probability of prospective profits.

"Our investments and our loans are of a different character," he
explained, "but I have no doubt that Fane, Harmon & Co.--"

"Why, both Fane and Harmon are members of the club!" laughed Selwyn.
"You don't expect Neergard to go to them?"

A peculiar expression flickered in Gerard's heavy features; perhaps he
thought that Fane and Harmon and Jack Ruthven were not above exploiting
their own club under certain circumstances. But whatever his opinion, he
said nothing further; and, suggesting tha