"Then I am too young for it now?"
"I am afraid so. And yet—but I will tell you what it is, and see if you consider yourself equal to it. How old are you now?"
"Seventeen, sir."
"I will explain myself. I am intimately acquainted with the men who are engineering the Northern Pacific Railroad, and I have reliable advices that work will at once be resumed on it, and probably the road will be completed in less than a year."
"I suppose this will raise the price of our land in Tacoma?"
"Precisely. Still, I think it will not be advisable to sell for some time to come. My object is rather to buy more land."
"I should think it would be a good idea."
"The time to buy is now, before the public learn of the probable early completion of the railroad. If I could spare the time from my business I would go out there at once."
"I should think it would pay, Mr. Crawford."
"Doubtless it would, but I cannot arrange to leave now. I expect to have some large transactions in real estate during the next two or three months."