Five Thousand an Hour : how Johnny Gamble won the heiress by George Randolph Chester
page 61 of 263 (23%)
page 61 of 263 (23%)
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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." |
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