lands, who boasted that he was on the "inside" in Washington, who was
on the way to fortune--if the new Senator from Mississippi would or
could be forced to stand in favor of the Altacoola naval base.

His conversation with Randolph Langdon, as Haines and Cullen saw them
pass through the hotel lobby, illustrated the nature of the Norton of
the present and his interest in the Altacoola scheme.

"There's no reason why you shouldn't come in on the ground floor in
this proposition, Randolph," he was urging in continuance of the
conversation begun over a table in the café. "No reason why you
shouldn't do it, my boy. Why, are you still a child, or are you really
a man? You have now drafts for $50,000, haven't you?"

"Yeah," agreed Langdon, chagrined at Norton's insinuation of
youthfulness and anxious to prove that he was really a man of affairs,
"I've got the fifty thousand, Charlie, but--but, you see, that's the
money for improvements on the plantation. As father has put me in as
manager I want to make a showing."

"You can't make it until spring," urged Norton. "The money's got to
lie in the bank all winter. Now, why don't you make a hundred thousand
with it instead of letting it lie idle? Isn't that simple?"

The younger man's eyes opened wide, and his imagination, stimulated by
the special brand of Bourbon whisky Norton had ordered for him, took
rapid bounds.

"One hundred thousand! You mean I could make a hundred thousand with
my fifty between now and spring?"