"I never delay business matters," Mr. Braden replied. "Get your loan, and get it at once. Otherwise I shall exercise the rights which the mortgage gives me."
"That is plain enough," said Angus.
"It's intended to be," said Mr. Braden.
Thence Angus went to Judge Riley's office and told him the situation. The Judge jotted figures on a pad.
"To clean up you will want nearly eleven thousand dollars," he said. "That's a large sum for this country."
"The property is worth three or four times that."
"Yes, on a basis of land at so much per acre. But uncultivated land isn't productive. You have to pay interest out of what you grow. Few concerns will lend money on raw land. Then you are borrowing to pay off accumulated debts, and not to improve property, buy stock or the like. These things have an important bearing. You may have trouble in getting money. And I think Braden will try to see that you have."
"What will he have to do with it?"
"Bless your innocence, he knows the loan companies operating here, and their appraisers. They'll ask him what sort of a borrower you have been and are apt to be, and why he is calling his loan in, and he'll knock you as hard as he can. He doesn't want the loan paid off. He wants to sell you out, and buy the place in. He is still at the old game. He'll try to work it now by a mortgage sale."
"But that would be a public sale. He'd have to bid against others."