"We'll load up the equipment and pull out
in the morning."
"Why be so precipitate, Mr. Conway?" Don Mike objected, almost
fiercely. "You always were the most easy-going, tender-hearted old
scout imaginable, and that's why you've never been able to afford a new
automobile. Now, I have a proposition to submit to you, Mr. Conway,
and inasmuch as it conflicts radically with Mr. Parker's interests, I
feel that common courtesy to him indicates that I should voice that
proposition in his presence. With the greatest good will in life
toward each other, nevertheless we are implacable opponents. Mr.
Parker has graciously spread, face up on the table for my inspection,
an extremely hard hand to beat; so now it's quite in order for me to
spring my little joker and try to take the odd trick. Mr. Conway, I
want you to do something for me. Not for my sake or the sake of my
dead father, who was a good friend of yours, but for the sake of this
state where we were both born and which we love because it is
symbolical of the United States. I want you to stand pat and refuse to
cancel this contract. Insist on going through with it and make Mr.
Parker pay for it. He can afford it, and he is good for it. He will
not repudiate a promise to pay while he has money in bank or securities
to hypothecate. He is absolutely responsible financially. He owns a
controlling interest in the First National Bank of El Toro, and he has
a three-hundred-thousand-dollar equity in this ranch in the shape of a
first mortgage ripe for foreclosure--you can levy on those assets if he
declines to go through with the contract.
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