“Never seen him since the night he arrived, with that man Andrew Lampton. That was before Louden Powers came. Powers stayed here one night, but the other two went straight up to the Milmarsh residence. I happened to be down at the railroad station when they arrived, or I wouldn’t have seen them at all.”
“Did you speak to them?”
“Oh, yes. Milmarsh shook hands with me, and said I had not changed since he saw me last, and I handed him back a similar line of talk. You know how men do when they haven’t seen each other for a long time.”
Carter nodded and poured out another cup of coffee for Chick.
“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Captain Brown jovially. “What humbugs men are! I could see a lot of changes in him, but I did not think he would want me to say so, and, of course, I didn’t.”
“Well, we came up here to learn what really was going on,” observed Nick, after a pause. “What are they doing at Paradise City?”
“Nothing.”
“No building going on?”
“Why, no. They couldn’t build there. It’s that swampy place over to the northeast. Mr. Milmarsh—I mean this Howard Milmarsh’s father—never did anything with it. He talked about having it filled in some time. But he never did it. If he had, he would have made it an extension to his golf links.”
“They are selling plots, aren’t they?”