“All right, I’m a man of reason.”
“A bird in hand is worth two in the bush!”
“Every time, General.”
“Well, call off your dogs, and rescind your order for a thirty per cent tax levy, and I’ll raise $30,000 in cash and pay it to you in two days.”
“Make it $50,000 and it’s a bargain.”
“Agreed.”
The General raised twenty thousand in the city, went North and borrowed the remaining thirty thousand.
Legree and his brigands received this ransom and moved on to the next town.
Poor Hambright was but a scrawny little village on a red hill with no big values to be saved, and no mills to interest the commercial world, and the auctioneer lifted his hammer.