They’ll fancy they’ll grow oranges, as all Englishmen do who try Florida. Perhaps they may grow them: who knows, if they keep off whisky and put in work? But that won’t be the promoters’ concern. They don’t advertise that the land _will_ produce oranges; they only guarantee that it would if it was given a chance; and that’s all correct. Perhaps this is rough on the Jugginses; but as they crowd these British Islands in droves, and are always on the look-out for some one to shear them, I don’t see why an Everglades Company shouldn’t have their fleeces as well as anybody else. They’re mostly wasters, and wouldn’t do any mortal good anywhere; and it’s a patriotic deed to cart them over our boundary ditch away from local mischief. Besides, even if the worst comes to the worst, and the orange industry of Florida still refuses to make headway, the would-be growers needn’t starve; nor need they even do what they’ll probably hate more—and that’s work. There’s always sweet potatoes and mullet and tobacco to be got, and if that diet doesn’t cloy, a man can have it there for mighty little exertion. Come, now. That’s the pemmican of the plan. What do you think of it?” “Much capital would be needed.” Onslow shrugged his shoulders. “Some, naturally, or I shouldn’t have come to you. If I’d seen any way to pouching all the plunder single-handed you may bet your life, Mr. Theodore Shelf, I shouldn’t have invited you into partnership.” “Returns, too, would be very slow.” “Not necessarily. Float the company, and then turn it over to another company for cash down.” “Moreover, when the—er—the young men you spoke about, found that the orange-groves did not produce at once in paying quantities, they would write home, and their parents would denounce me as a swindler in the newspapers.” “No, not you; the other company—the one you sold it to. But then apologists would arise to show that the Jugginses—don’t shy at the word, sir—were lazy and ignorant, and also that they absorbed the corn whisky of the country in excessive quantities. And then that company could grin smugly, and pose as a misunderstood benefactor. So its profits wouldn’t be smirched in the least. Grasp that?” “Yes, yes: I dare say you have worked it all out to yourself, and thought over the details so many times that the whole scheme seems entirely plausible. But looking at it from the view of a business man, I cannot say that it appears to be an enterprise I should care to embark in. You see it is so very much beyond the scope of my general operations that I—er—hesitate—er—you understand, I hesitate——” “Yes,” said Patrick Onslow, quietly, “you hesitate because you’ve got something ten times more profitable up your sleeve.” Shelf started, and shivered slightly.