“Yes.”
“Well, we’ll take it off your hands—at a figure.”
“What figure?”
“I’m not prepared to say exactly, but if you like we can go into the matter thoroughly and then I’ll make you an offer.”
“Don’t f-f-figger to sell,” says Mark. “We need this p-power to run our mill.”
“But we want to buy,” said the man.
“Uh-huh,” says Mark. “Well, if you want it bad, you kin have it. But you got to buy power and mill. Mill’s no good without p-p-power, is it? I’ll figger up what the whole thing is worth to me, complete as it stands, and let you know.”
“I’m not buying any mills, my friend. I guess you didn’t understand me. I represent the Middle-West Power Company.” He said it as a fellow might say he was the ambassador from England, or a special traveling-agent from the moon.
“I heard that,” says Mark.
“Then you must have heard that when we want to buy—we buy.”