"Then we could give a mortgage on the tunnel, and so raise money to buy the cable, and there you are."
"That's all very fine," said Ned; "but they foreclose mortgages. And if there was a mortgage on our tunnel, and they foreclosed it while we were in there, what would become of us? How should we ever get out?"
Phaeton laughed.
"I'll tell you how we'll fix it," said he. "We'll have a secret shaft leading out of the tunnel, and not let the man we give the mortgage to know anything about it."
Ned didn't exactly know whether he was being quizzed or not.
"What's the other way of getting the thing into operation?" said he.
"The other way," said Phaeton, "is to go to New York and see Uncle Silas, and have him get up a company to start it there."
"I think I like that way best," said Ned. "But, to tell you the truth, I had made arrangements to do something else with that ten dollars."
Phaeton looked disappointed.
"Then why didn't you say so in the first place?" said he, as he put his things into his pocket and turned to walk away.