“Simple as you see me sitting here!” responded Dodd.
“Good business?”
“Well, I’m not a lucky man, you see,” returned the stranger. “It ought to have been good.”
“You had a secret?” asked the Glasgow man.
“As big as the State of Texas.”
“And the other man was rich?”
“He wasn’t exactly Jay Gould, but I guess he could buy these islands if he wanted.”
“Why, what was wrong, then? Couldn’t you get hands on him?”
“It took time, but I had him cornered at last; and then——”
“What then?”