“Better think it over, my young friend. It is not by any means certain that the shares are worth anything.”
“I will take the risk,” said Walter, coolly. “I have just returned from visiting the mines.”
General Wall listened to this statement with dismay. He found the negotiations more difficult than he had anticipated.
“Well,” said he, after a pause, “have you any offer to make?”
“I will sell the shares for sixty thousand dollars.”
“You must be crazy,” said the general, in excitement.
“I have no fears on that subject.” said our hero, coolly, “But I may as well tell you, General Wall, that I am entirely acquainted with your plan for obtaining complete control of the stock. I know you have succeeded in buying up most of it at little or nothing, and that you will probably realize a fortune out of it. But my eyes are open. They were opened three weeks since, when I overheard, at the Portville House, a conversation between the landlord and an agent of yours, who gave full details of the conspiracy into which you had entered to defraud the original owners of stock. I learned that you had succeeded with all except myself. The result of this revelation was that I determined to visit the mines, and see for myself. I spent three days there, and I have returned to tell you that you may have the stock for sixty thousand dollars, or I will keep it. I know it is worth more than I ask, but I live in the East, and I prefer to have my money invested there.”
General Wall had risen, and was pacing the room in some agitation.
“The revelation you have made has taken me by surprise, Mr.--Conrad. I will think over what you have said, and call upon you at the hotel to-morrow.”
“Very well, sir. You won’t forget about looking up a new teacher?”