"Hold on, hold on, Wilson. You’re running as wild as a mustang colt. I’m not so sure about this thing. I’ve got to have more time to consider it. I said I’d let you have the land for eight hundred and fifty thousand, but I believe I’m a fool to let it go for any such figure. However, I’ll let it stand for a couple of days. I’ve got some affairs booked for to-morrow that will take all my time. But if you’ll come in on Tuesday with your eight hundred and fifty thousand you can have the land. After that it’ll cost you more."
"Kendrick, I’ll wait another day for you, if I have to telegraph that I’ve broken a leg. Business, sir, is, next to war, man’s most important pursuit; but even business must give way to the call of friendship. You’ll see me coming into your office on Tuesday morning, Kendrick, like a conquering hero, ready to receive your sword--or your pen, which is mightier yet--but at eight hundred thousand, mind you."
"Come, come, Wilson, you’re getting ahead of your horses," said Kendrick with a laugh. "I’m thinking of getting up a company to reclaim those lands, and if I conclude to do it, I won’t sell for double the money."
"Talk as long as you like, Kendrick; but I’ve got a sixth sense that tells me when a bargain’s made, and it never fails me. I can tell, nine times out of ten, when the other fellow has concluded to take my figures before he knows it himself, and that gift has saved me a pretty penny more than once. Why, when the Ohio Midland was enlarging its Chicago terminal, there was one piece we had to have--but the story’s too long to tell. However, I made a hundred thousand dollars the best of the bargain by knowing what the other fellow was going to do before he knew it himself."
Wharton Kendrick gave a hearty laugh at General Wilson’s diplomacy.
"Well, I shall take warning by that and hold out for my hundred thousand--or, I should say, fifty thousand, as I’ve given you a price."
"You’re getting your extra hundred thousand with the price I’m offering you," said the general testily, "and I know well enough you’ll not be fool enough to refuse it, especially after such a row as you had on Nob Hill last night. I hope my New York clients don’t hear of it, or everything will be off. I was there, sir, and of all the howling mobs I ever saw, this beat anything since the draft riots. Why, sir, that blatant beast, Kearney, shouted arson and manslaughter, and another fellow called for the overturn of society, and if it hadn’t been for the police, I believe they would have worked up the crowd to the point of blood-letting." Then General Wilson went at such length into the proper methods of handling mobs that I seized upon a favorable moment to slip out the door.