“Not right away,” said Merry. “They seemed indignant, and accused me of all sorts of craziness. They agreed to give the first price demanded. I said, ‘Nay, nay; it’s fifty thousand more if you want the Phantom.’ Then they said, ‘All right, Mr. Merriwell, we don’t want your old mine; your price is ridiculous.’ Says I, ‘Good day, gentlemen.’ They departed, but within two hours one of them came back. It seems that he had been authorized to pay my increase of fifty thousand if there was no other way to get the property. The moment I saw him I decided on a new price. After he had talked with me a few moments and found I had not reduced my figures any, he announced that the syndicate was ready to buy on my terms, and he was there to close the deal. Then I informed him that since my last quotation on the price, I had been figuring the thing over and had decided that it was folly to sell so low. I had advanced the price fifty thousand more.” Merry laughed heartily as he recalled the incident. “Ugh!” grunted Browning. “You always did have plenty of nerve, Frank.” “You should have seen my visitor,” chuckled Merry. “He came near falling in a fit. I surely thought he was done for. Then he rose up and frothed, and made a lot of wild talk. He said it was an imposition. I had named a price in the first place, and they had agreed to it. “I reminded him that they had not agreed to it in the first place. Since naming that price I had figured the matter over a little and had gone up on my terms. I was still figuring. As I made this statement I turned to a sheet of paper at my side and began to figure. Well, you should have seen that man jump on me. He was scared blue. I believe he expected me to shove her up another fifty thousand right away. He pushed a check at me to bind the bargain, and accepted my terms then and there.” “Well, you’re a dim jandy—I mean a jim dandy,” spluttered Rattleton. “I’d never have the nerve to raise the price on anything fifty thousand at a jump.” “The property is worth it, and those men knew it,” said Frank. “Only for the fact that I have the Queen Mystery and the San Pablo to look after, and they keep me very busy, I should not have been so willing to sell. Hodge will be somewhat surprised when he finds out what has happened. The building of a railroad in Mexico that will connect the San Pablo with the outer world is going to take up much of my time and attention in the future. The San Pablo is marvelously rich, or it would not pay me to pack ore more than two hundred miles over a rough and sterile country to the largest railroad, and thence ship it north to smelters in Arizona. I am intensely interested in this railroad scheme, and Hodge has become interested and enthused himself. The San Pablo is not the only mine down in that region. Others will be opened, and Hodge is anxious to be on the ground.”