proposition excited him; he felt elated. His quickened pulse-beats
prevented him from realizing the enormity of the proposed transaction,
but he knew that he ought to be indignant. What a pity it was that
Gulmore had made no proposal which he might have accepted--and then
disclosed!

"If I understand you, you propose that I should take up this contract,
and make money out of it. If that was your business with me, you've made
a mistake, and Professor Roberts is right."

"Hev I?" asked Mr. Gulmore slowly, coldly, in sharp contrast to the
lawyer's apparent excitement and quick speech. Contemptuously he thought
that Hutchings was "foolisher" than he had imagined--or was he sincere?
He would have weighed this last possibility before speaking, if the
mention of Roberts had not angered him. His combativeness made him
persist:

"If you don't want to come in with me, all you've got to do is to say
so. You've no call to get up on your hind legs about it; it's easy to do
settin'. But don't talk poppycock like that Professor; he's silly. He
talks about the contract for street pavin', and it ken be proved--'twas
proved in the 'Herald'--that our streets cost less per foot than the
streets of any town in this State. He knows nothin'. He don't even know
that an able man can make half a million out of a big contract, an' do
the work better than an ordinary man could do it who'd lose money by it.
At a million our Court House'll be cheap; and if the Professor had the
contract with the plans accordin' to requirement to-morrow, he'd make
nothin' out of it--not a red cent. No, sir. If I ken, that's my
business--and yours, ain't it? Or, are we to work for nothin' because
he's a fool?"