“How pure?”
“In one parcel it makes no difference. In the other pure enough to be freely acidic. Is it true that the government is dumping TNT into the ocean?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Isn’t that a waste?”
“Certainly. It’s easier to handle than dynamite, and any farmer could be taught to use it.”
“Then I’d like some of it.”
“You can’t get it.”
“I’ll lay you five hundred dollars that I’ll buy fifty thousand pounds at less than ten cents a pound.”
“I’ll take you.”
At this point the mother had something to say. “Chase Mahan, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You’d better tell him that if you succeed, you will pay for a lecture at Yale on the evils of betting.”