CHAPTER XXIX.

MR. FAIRCHILD’S TELEGRAM.

“Tacoma!” repeated the professor. “Who is interested in Tacoma?”

“I own five lots of land there,” answered Chester.

“Then I congratulate you. Lots are rising there, and are destined to go to a still higher point.”

“How do you account for that?” asked Prof. Hazlitt.

“In three months the Northern Pacific Railroad will be completed, and that will give a great impetus to the growth of the town. I expect to live to see fifty thousand people there. Let me ask how you became possessed of these lots?”

“They were given to me by a friend now dead.”

“What was his name?”

“Walter Bruce.”