luncheon, authorized me, quite orally, indeed, to secure the cheaper
site without a moment's delay, especially since it was rumored that
Morton Washer was contemplating the erection of a hotel upon that
very spot."

"I see the finish," laughed Johnny. "Mad with fear, you dashed right
down there and broke yourself! Then Union Pacific fell off an
eighth; they killed an insurrecto in Mexico; the third secretary of
a second-rate life-insurance company died and Wall Street put crape
on the door. All your friends got cold feet and it was the other
fellow who had urged you to buy that property. The colonel says you
dropped a hundred and twenty-five thousand. That's a stiff option.
Can't you get any of it back?"

"Get it back!" groaned Courtney. "They're after the balance. It
wasn't an option--it was a contract. If I don't pay the remainder at
the end of the ninety days they'll sue me; and I have several
million dollars' worth of property that I can't hide."

Gamble shrugged his shoulders resignedly.

"Your only chance is to build or sell," he decided. "It's your
property, all right. Have you offered it?"

"Old Mort Washer wants it--confound him! I've discovered that the
day after I bought this ground he told my friends that he intended
to buy the big piece and build in competition; and they ran like
your horse--Angora--last Saturday, Gamble. Now Washer offers to buy
this ground for two and an eighth millions--just the amount for
which I will be sued."