"And the longer you stay in Prouty the more you'll need it!" The jeering voice from the rear of the room belonged to Toomey. The Club turned its head and looked at the interrupter in astonishment. He was sitting in the high-headed arrogance with which once upon a time they had all been familiar. Though momentarily disconcerted, Mr. Butefish collected himself and retorted: "Perhaps you have something better to offer, Toomey." "If I hadn't I wouldn't offer it," he replied insolently. The thought that came instantly to every mind was that Toomey must have had a windfall. How else account for this sudden independence? This possibility tempered the asperity of Mr. Butefish's answer, though it still had plenty of spirit: "We are ready to acknowledge your--er--originality, Mr. Toomey, and will be delighted to listen." To Toomey it was a rare moment. He enjoyed it so keenly that he wished he might prolong it. Uncoiling his long legs, he surveyed his auditors with a tolerant air of amusement: "I presume there are no objections to my mentioning a few of the flaws that I see in the schemes which have been outlined?" "Our time is limited," hinted Mr. Butefish. "It won't take long to puncture those bubbles," Toomey answered, contemptuously. Certainly he had made a raise somewhere! "We will hear your criticisms," replied Mr. Butefish, with the restraint of offended dignity. "In the first place, everybody knows that the soil in this country sours and alkalies when water stands on it." Toomey spoke as a man who had wide experience. He looked at "Doc" Fussel, who shrivelled with the chagrin that filled him, when Toomey added, "That settles the peppermint bog, doesn't it? "Take the next proposition: What's the use of car-lines that begin nowhere and end nowhere? A cripple could walk from one end of the town to the other in seven minutes. You couldn't raise enough outside capital to buy the spikes for it. "Take fossils--a school boy would know that the demand for fossils is limited, and who is sure that the bed is inexhaustible until it's tested. When the government is taking nitrates out of the air in Prouty to make ammunition, you and I will be under the daisies, Governor." If looks could kill, Toomey would have died standing. But he continued emphatically: "The salvation of Prouty is water. By water I mean the completion of the irrigation project. Gentlemen--I am here to state unreservedly that I can put that enterprise through, providing the stockholders will give me an option upon fifty-one per cent. of the stock. I must have the controlling interest."