“Hieronymous Alphabet Bell,” says Collins. “That is quite some name. Wonder where he got it?”
“Don’t care where he got it. What I’m worrying about is, will we get him?”
“Sure,” says Collins. “He’s probably forgotten he ever owned forty acres in the Northern Peninsula, and if he remembers it he won’t think about retaining the mineral rights when he sold it.”
“You never can tell about these old codgers. Some of ’em are wiser than they look.”
“Well,” says Collins, “we’ve got to land him. It means considerable to you and me, eh? To think of the old codger living here in the backwoods when he is the owner of one of the finest bits of copper property in the state! I don’t suppose there’s any telling what that land is worth as it stands.”
“You can bet it’s worth considerable, or the company wouldn’t be so anxious to get hold of it. Anyhow, it would be enough to make our friend Hieronymous richer than he ever dreamed of being.”
“Well, he won’t ever know it. Seems kind of mean, sometimes, to gouge an old fellow, but I suppose business is business. He’s as happy without it, likely.”
“We haven’t got it yet,” snapped Jiggins, “and you want to move pretty cautious. Remember, you’re a friend of a farmer who bought that piece to farm on. Remember he’s a peculiar old fellow who wants to feel nobody else has any right whatever in the land he lives. That’s why he wants to get the mineral rights Mr. Hieronymous Alphabet owns. Remember that. It ought to fool him, all right, but you can’t ever tell. We mustn’t offer him too much, or he’ll get to thinking. Two hundred is the highest, I should say.”
“Two hundred’s plenty. There’s no need to waste money, anyhow.”
Mark Tidd was holding onto my arm. As Collins and Jiggins went on talking I could feel him getting more and more excited by the way his fingers dug into me. I hadn’t any idea he was so strong in the hands, but I began to think he’d take a chunk right out of me.