ful.
The air is superb. There are five hundred acres of it. Here," he went
on, tapping a round spot, "is a small town, the name of which we will
not mention for the moment. The Great Central expresses stop here.
The journey to town takes forty minutes. That five hundred acres of
land can be bought for twenty thousand pounds. It can be resold in
half-acre and acre lots for building purposes at a profit of thirty
or forty per cent."

"The price of the land, if it is according to your description, is
low," Jacob remarked. "Why?"

Mr. Dane Montague flashed an excellently simulated look of admiration
at his questioner.

"That's a shrewd question, Mr. Pratt," he confessed. "We are going to
be honest and aboveboard with you. The price is low because the Urban
Council of this town here"--tapping on the plan--"will not enter into
any scheme for supplying lighting or water outside the three-mile
boundary."

"Then what's the use of the land for building?" Jacob demanded.

"I will explain," the other continued. "Situated here, two miles from
our land, are the premises, works and reservoir of the Cropstone Wood,
Water and Electric Light Company. They are in a position to supply
everything in that way which the new colony might desire."

"A going concern?" Jacob enquired.

"Certainly!" was the prompt reply. "But it is in connection with this
Company that we expect to make a certain additional profit."

Jacob glanced at the clock.

"You must hurry," he enjoined.

"The Cropstone Wood Company," Mr. Dane Montague confided, "is in a
poorish way of business. The directors are sick of their job. They
know nothing about our plan for building on the estate, and, to cut a
long story short, we have secured a six months' option to purchase the
whole concern at a very low price. As soon as the building commences
on the common, we shall exercise that option. We shall make a handsome
profit on the rise in the shares of the Cropstone Wood Company, but
our proposal is to work the company ourselves. At the price we can
offer them at, it is certain that every building lot will be sold.
Mr. Littleham here has prepared a specification of various forms of
domiciles suited to the neighbourhood."

Mr. Littleham, in a remarkably thick voice, intervened.

"I can run 'em up six-roomers at three hundred quid; eight and ten
at five; and a country villa, with half an acre of garden, for a
thousand," he announced, relapsing at the conclusion of his