a chance but seldom going wrong.

"Evy said you wanted to see me about borrowing some money," the old man
dryly interrupted the flow of eloquence.

"Yes--why, yes." Reedy brought up suddenly before he had naturally
reached his climax, floundered for a moment. "Why, yes, we have an
investment that I thought would certainly interest you." Reedy had
decided not only to get the old man to finance the Red Butte purchase
but his whole project.

He began to explain his maps and figures as volubly as though he were
selling the Encyclopedia Britannica, and again the old man cut in:

"How many acres you got leased?"

"Ten thousand--practically." Reedy paused to answer, his pencil
touching the Dillenbeck Canal.

"What did you pay for them?"

"I got most of them for about a third to half what they cost the
ranchers."

"Why did they sell so cheap?"

"Oh," Reedy waved, vaguely evasive, "you know how that is; fellows are
like sheep--stampede into a country, and then one makes a break, and
they stampede out. Now that Benson has sold, a lot more of them will
get cold feet."

"Altogether how much money have you put in over there?"

"Forty-two thousand dollars," replied Reedy, consulting a memorandum.
"You understand," he continued to explain, "I'm not a cotton grower at
all; I am an investor. I'm dealing in leases; and I merely took over
the planted crop on the Benson leases because I got it so cheap there
is bound to be money in it."

"What is it you want?" demanded Crill.

"Seventy thousand or so for the lease and the crop. I have 8,000 acres
already planted, some of it coming up. I'll pay you 10 per cent. for
the money, and half the cotton seed, and give you first mortgage on the
crop. Those are the usual terms here."

The sharp blue eyes under the shaggy brows had been investigating Reedy
as they talked. He wanted to make loans, for he had a lot of idle
money. "There are two sorts of men who pay their debts," the old man
said to himself. "One who wants to owe more, and one who doesn't want
to owe anything." Jenkins would want to borrow more, therefore he
would pay his first loan. Even rascals are usually good pay when they
are making money. And it looked like this fellow would make money on
these leases. Anyway, Jim Crill moved a little annoyedly in his chair
at the thought of his niece. It would be almost worth the risk to be
rid of Evy's nagging him about it.

"Fix up the papers," he said, short