“Oh, I suppose he has some good points,” allowed Dolph. “I never heard that he beat his wife. And we all know that he goes to church regularly. You can see him any day.”
“He hasn’t got any wife,” said Sam. “He’s a widow—I mean a widower.”
“The real trouble with Old Finkler,” observed Ted, “is that he hates Maple Ridge and everything about it.”
“But why?” asked Jack.
“Oh, I guess we’ve always rubbed him the wrong way.”
“Then let’s rub him the right way; smooth him down,” said Jack.
“H-m; I don’t believe he will let you get near enough to do any smoothing. He will probably set that old dog on you as soon as you put foot on his land.”
“If Rowdy bites us,” said Ted comfortingly, “we’ll sue Finkler for damages.”
“You’ll get your damages beforehand,” answered Dolph, with a laugh. “Well, that’s settled so far, then, fellows. I’ll talk to Steve and Thorp Prentiss tomorrow. Then, if they’ll come in on it, we’ll all three of us talk to Benny. And if Benny will give us a free hand, we’ll make a formal call on Finkler and put it up to him. After all, he can’t do any more than chase us off the premises!”
“Tell him,” suggested Jack, “that we want to lease a small part of his field for five or ten years; that we won’t change it any except to put part of a running track on it, and that we’ll agree to put it in the same shape as we found it in at the end of the lease.”