difficulties, such as getting machinery out here in time, hiring Chinese
labor, chartering a ship, placing the output--"

"George Balt has done all that many times, and knows everything about it,"
Cherry interrupted, with decision. "Every difficulty can be met when the
time comes. What other people have done, you ought to be able to do."

But he was not to be won by flattery. Youth that he was, he already knew
the vanity of human hopes, and it was his nature to look at all sides of a
question before answering it finally.

"The slightest error of judgment would mean failure and ruin," he
reflected, "for this country isn't like any other. It is cut off from the
rest of the world, and there's no time to go back and pick up."

"The odds are great, of course," she acquiesced, "but the winnings are in
proportion. It isn't casino, by any means. This is worth while. Every man
who has done anything in this world believes in a goddess of luck, and
it's the element of chance that makes life worth living."

"That's all right in theory," he answered her, somewhat cynically, "but in
practice you'll find that luck is largely the result of previous judgment.
For every obstacle I have mentioned, a thousand unsuspected difficulties
will arise, any one of which--" The girl interrupted him sharply for a
second time, looking him squarely in the eyes, her own flushed face alight
with determination.

"There's only one person in the whole world who can defeat you, and that
person is yourself; and no man can finish a task before he begins it.
We'll grant there's a chance for failure--a million chances; but don't try