"See here, young man," said the banker, "I don't understand all this. Nobody else ever talked to me this way about oysters and oyster-beds before. And I've been dealing with oystermen all my life. Are you trying to stuff me?"
"Of course you never heard anything like it," said Alec, "for nobody ever did these things at Bivalve before. I am the first oysterman here of the new type. There will be scientific oystermen aplenty in a little while."
"I want to know more about this. Just come back into the directors' room and tell me more about it."
Half an hour later Alec walked out of the directors' room, his face shining. He signed a note and shoved it through the window to the cashier.
"That's all right, Mr. Cunningham," said the cashier. "I'll put this sum to your credit. And remember, if you need more we shall be glad to help you out."
Alec thanked the banker and walked hastily out. "Now who'd have thought that the mere story of what I've been doing would make him lend me the money?" he said to himself. What Alec did not understand was that it was his own character and not his story of scientific oyster methods that got him the money. Like Captain Rumford and other men, the banker, too, had been watching Alec through the years.
Straight to a lawyer Alec now hurried, with instructions to lease Hardy's oyster grounds. "Lease them on a royalty basis, if you can, at so much per bushel," said Alec. "If you can't get them that way, pay a flat sum. I can give you so much now in cash, and the remainder from month to month as we dredge the oysters."
In a few days the lease was secured. Hardy wanted a lump sum. Alec signed the agreement and drew his check for all he had in the bank. "Now," he said to himself, "everything I've got in the world is at stake. I've backed my judgment to the limit. If I lose, I'll have to go in debt to pay what I still owe Hardy. If I win, the shipper is saved."
From the lawyer's office Alec went to the shipper's home. He found Elsa, as he had hoped he would, and told her what he had done.
"Oh, Alec!" she said. "I can't begin to tell you how fine you have been. If only you do get the oysters—won't it be wonderful!"