"'It isn't for sale, I tell you.'
"'We'll pay you two million and a half! Come on down here!'
"'Do you mean that?' gasped Allis. He could hardly credit his ears.
"'Come downstairs and I'll write you a check!' said Stagg. And so
they hauled him down, and they bought his mill. Then they opened
some more champagne, and Allis began to get good-natured, too.
"'There's only one thing the matter with my mill,' said he, 'and
that's Jones's mill over in Harristown. The railroads give him
rebates, and he undersells me.'
"'Well, damn his soul,' said Stagg, 'we'll have his mill, too.'
"And so they bundled into their special again, and about six o'clock
in the morning they got to Harristown, and they bought another mill.
And that started them, you know. They'd never had such fun in their
lives before. It seems that Stagg had just cleaned up ten or twelve
millions on a big Wall Street plunge, and they blew in every dollar,
buying steel mills--and paying two or three prices for every one,
of course."
Gamble paused and chuckled to himself.
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