"Not sensible husbands, my dear." Then he faced Gilbert again.
"To go back to where we were: I will admit that there is a possibility of
oil in this property. But it is only a possibility." The strain was broken.
Everyone looked relieved. Lucia moved for the first time--she had been like
a frightened bird under the spell of a serpent. "I'm a business man," Pell
went on, suavely. "I'm willing to gamble twenty thousand dollars."
"You will?" cried Uncle Henry. There was no quieting him. His life was one
long question-mark.
"It's a fair proposition, and, as far as I can see, your only way out,
Jones." He had paid no attention to the old man's interruption. But the
latter broke in once more:
"Why don't you lend _us_ the ten thousand and let _us_ gamble?"
Pell was in no wise disconcerted by the query. He replied with another
question--always the shrewd man's way out of a difficulty, "Would you, in
my place?"
"Sure I would!" came from the wheel chair.
"Oh, you would--"
"Yes, _sir_!"
Pell had nothing further to say to him, but addressed himself to Gilbert
again.
"However, if you don't think that offer fair, I'll give you twenty thousand
cash and assume the mortgages.
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