"I should say twenty-five dollars an acre," he replied.
"Double it," he cried.
"Very well, fifty dollars an acre," Norman agreed. "In round numbers it will cost us twenty-five thousand dollars. That leaves a profit of more than a hundred thousand, doesn't it?"
Again the superintendent laughed.
"And would you risk this enormous sum on one experiment? Suppose your melons would not be sweet?"
"There is no such possibility," the young enthusiast declared. "Their sweetness depends solely on two things—the quality of the seed and the quantity of rain which falls on them while they are growing. We are wasting a supreme opportunity. No rain falls in Ventura during the summer. We get our water to the roots by irrigation, not by rainfall. Get the right seed and your melons must be perfect. This is a scientific fact I have seen demonstrated. Try it on a vast scale and success is sure."
They voted unanimously against the proposition. Norman insisted. The superintendent resigned and appealed to the executive council. Wolf and Catherine, Tom and Barbara advised against placing so much capital in a single enterprise.
"I've got to make you rich and successful in spite of yourselves," Norman finally declared. "For the present I control these funds and I'm going to plant this crop. So that settles it. I'm sorry we can't agree."
His instantaneous decision fairly took Wolf's breath.
Barbara laughed and congratulated him.