with in the
financial world. Riles' excitement was scarcely less than Allan's.
Gardiner choked a flood of questions on his lips with a quick
imperative glance. Even Riles did not know that the telegram had been
written a few doors down the street by a stoutish man in a
pepper-and-salt suit.

"I'll take a chance," said Harris, at last. "I'll take a chance."

"Chance nothing!" interjected Gardiner, with momentary abruptness.
"It was a chance a minute ago; it's a certainty now. It's the cinch
of a lifetime."

"Where's some paper?" asked Allan. "Let's get a telegram away right
off."

Gardiner produced a notebook and, at Harris's dictation, drafted a
telegram to Bradshaw, directing him to dispose of the farm at once
along the lines of the instructions already given him. He was to cash
the agreement and wire the proceeds to Harris.

Then followed long anxious days. Fortune seemed to hang on Bradshaw's
success in making an immediate sale of the farm. It was a large
order, and yet Harris felt confident a buyer would be found. The
price asked was not unreasonable, especially when it was remembered
that the crop would go to the purchaser, and was now almost ready for
the binder. Bradshaw was in constant touch with well-to-do farmers
from the South who were on the look-out for land, and his own banking
facilities would enable him to forward the cash as soon as a sale was
assured, without waiting for actual payment by the purchaser. So
Harris was confident in the midst of his anxiety.

A gentleman's agreement had been made with Gardiner and Riles that
not a word was to be said concerning their investment until it was a
completed fact. Gardiner dropped in occasionally to learn if any word
had come from Plainville, but it was not until the afternoon of the
fourth day that the fateful yellow envelope was handed in at the
hotel. As it happened, Gardiner and Riles were present at the moment.
They slipped into the back room and waited in a fever of expectation
for Harris to announce the contents.

Harris and Allan read the message twice before speaking; then Allan
repeated it aloud:

"Twenty thousand dollars proceeds sale goes forward by wire your
bank. Correspondence follows. Will explain failure to get price
asked.

"BRADSHAW."

Harris was torn between emotions, and his face worked with unwonted
nervousness as he struggled with them. That Bradshaw should have sold
the farm for half the price he had stipulated seemed