In fact, taking it all around Battick had tried to do the impossible. He had neither capital nor land nor housing facilities to develop and grow a sufficiently large crop of the new wheat to make its sale for seed a profitable venture. "You tell me that you lost everything on your Mortgage Lifter Oats undertaking," Hiram said to him. "So far you have tried to keep secret your new wheat, and you have lost out. If your neighbors have not robbed you, and if the burning of the wheat stack was not a case of incendiarism, it was a sure thing that the rats and the mice are against you. I do not believe that one man alone can handle such an undertaking. "Suppose you make a contract with Mr. Bronson for two years, during which the wheat can be properly developed and a big crop raised. You furnish such seed as you have left--half to be planted this fall, the remainder to be held against chance of accident. Mr. Bronson will supply the land, the fertilizer, the tillage, paying for the harvesting and thrashing and storage, as well as for any guard that may be needed if trouble should arise. You'll make more under the terms of such a partnership than you would if you made the crop entirely by yourself and sold out to a seedsman." "And where do you come in, Mr. Strong?" Battick had asked. "If you go fifty-fifty with Mr. Bronson on the final profit obtained from the exploitation of the wheat, I'll get my share from Mr. Bronson," Hiram said. The proposal was most thoroughly thrashed out between the three, and in the end an agreement following closely Hiram Strong's suggestion was drawn up and signed by Yancey Battick and Mr. Bronson. Hiram being a minor, he could not enter into the partnership agreement; but he had his own contract with the owner of Sunnyside Farm by which he was to have a half interest in Mr. Bronson's share of the profits from the wheat transaction, if profits there were. And, under fairly favorable conditions, from what he had already seen of Yancey Battick's new wheat, the young manager of Sunnyside Farm was confident the profit for all would be large. He already had five hundred dollars in the bank when he came to Sunnyside. From his wages as farm manager he expected to lay aside at least two hundred and fifty dollars each quarter while his contract lasted. And for every dollar of these savings to which he looked forward, Hiram Strong had a definite use. CHAPTER XXII A STRANGER APPEARS Hiram Strong was learning something about corn growing that he had not found out before. That is, after all, one of the greatest charms of the science of agriculture: There is always something new to learn.