“Ten acres,” says Captain Winton. “We could run streets through and start in by building a dozen cottages. Then, if the thing went as I expect, we could put up more.”
“How much would we have to put into it?”
“Well, my guess is that we could put up the houses for a couple of thousand apiece—maybe twenty-five hundred. The bank would loan on each house and lot fifteen hundred. A dozen, including land and everything, would stand us in thirty-six thousand, and we would have to raise half of that.”
“I’ve got a few thousand lying loose,” says Mr. Moss. “I wouldn’t want to put everything into this building thing, because I’m still hoping to persuade Mr. Kinderhook to sell me a block of stock—say five thousand dollars. He’s pretty friendly with me.”
“I don’t know. He seems to want to hang onto it.”
“You got some,” says Mr. Moss.
“That was on account of the bank, I guess. He wanted to have us interested.... But I think we can get four or five men here to go into this building thing. We could form a company. I’ll put in my land at five thousand and take another five thousand besides.”
“You can count on me for two or three thousand, and Gage ’ll come in for some, and so will Gordon and Piddlecomb and Bockers.”
“Tell any of them you see to meet at the bank this afternoon. We want to go at it as quickly as we can.”
Then the train came in. We didn’t hear any more, but there didn’t seem to be any more to hear. On the way back to the store Catty was pretty quiet. As soon as we got there he hollered for Jack Phillips.