Before the boom collapses--a condition which will
follow the collapse of the N.C.O.--the Trinidad people hope to sell
their holdings and get from under."
"Really," said Shirley, demurely, "the more I see of business, the
more fascinating I find it."
"Shirley, it's the grandest game in the world."
"And yet," she added musingly, "old Mr. Cardigan is so blind and
helpless."
"They'll be saying that about me some day if I live to be as old as
John Cardigan."
"Nevertheless, I feel sorry for him, Uncle Seth."
"Well, if you'll continue to waste your sympathy on him rather than
on his son, I'll not object," he retorted laughingly.
"Oh, Bryce Cardigan is able to take care of himself."
"Yes, and mean enough."
"He saved our lives, Uncle Seth."
"He had to--in order to save his own. Don't forget that, my dear."
Carefully he dissected a sand-dab and removed the backbone. "I'd give
a ripe peach to learn the identity of the scheming buttinsky who
bought old Cardigan's Valley of the Giants," he said presently. "I'll
be hanged if that doesn't complicate matters a little."
"You should have bought it when the opportunity offered," she
reminded him. "You could have had it then for fifty thousand dollars
less than you would have paid for it a year ago--and I'm sure that
should have been sufficient indication to you that the game you and
the Cardigans had been playing so long had come to an end.
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