“You offered us a sum which, at three and a half per cent., would accrue, in ten years, to forty-two million dollars,” he reminded the president of the Municipal Transportation Company. “That figures to a spot-cash proposition of thirty-one millions, with a repeating decimal of one; so somebody will have to lose a cent.”
“That offer is withdrawn,” said Allison.
“I don’t see why,” objected Jim Sargent. “The property is as valuable for your purpose as it ever was.”
“I don’t dispute that; but in that offer I allowed you for the income earning capacity of your improved property. Since that capacity is stopped, I don’t feel obliged to pay you for it, or, in other words, to make up to you the loss which the city has compelled you to sustain.”
“There is some show of reason in what Allison says,” observed Joseph G. Clark.
Chisholm leaned forward, with his elbows on the table, around the edge of which were carved the heads of winged cherubs.
“What is your present offer?”
“Twenty-five million; cash.”
“We refuse!” announced Nicholas Van Ploon, bobbing his round head emphatically.
“I’m not so sure that we do,” returned Clark. “I have been studying property values in that neighbourhood, and I doubt if we can obtain more.”