"Fine!"

"But that's nothing. Do you realize that this soil will raise
sugar-cane the size of your--of my--thigh, and once you plant it
you can't keep it cut out?"

"It's all news to me."

"You can buy sugar-cane land for a dollar an acre; it costs--"
"I'm no good at figures, Mr. Weeks."

"And rubber! THERE'S the chance for a man with capital. Rubber!"

"I will--I mean, is that so?"

"Ever see any rubber-trees?"

"Only in Brooklyn."

"I mean wild rubber. This country is full of it; the natives bring
it in. All you have to do is buy timber land--you can get it for a
song--plant your rubber-seed, and let 'er go, Gallagher! In ten
years you go back, cut off your timber, sell it for enough to make
you rich, and there is your rubber--velvet!" he concluded,
triumphantly.

"Rubber velvet?"

"Yes. It's 'velvet'--all clear. You can't lose. My boy, there's a
thousand ways to get rich down here, and I know 'em all. What I