The Argosy, Vol. 83 No. 1 — page 177: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

COCHRANE HANDS OUT A LEMON. he kept offering me big money, and I even had the nerve to try to get him to take his money back, but he got quite sore over it. The boy here will bear me out.” Bunny was smiling and nodding during Jim’s story, and turned an appreciative gaze on Sandy. He put out his hand. “T owe you an apology, sir,” he said handsomely. ‘I wronged you in my thoughts. I understood you meant to sting us when you wished this farm on us. I see I was wrong. What’s the idea? We once thought that if we erected a freezing plant and did our own freezing on the land we could maybe make a fortune out of frozen rabbits. Maybe that’s your idea. Jim,” he said with regret, ‘perhaps we dropped that scheme too quick.” McKechnie was for the first time show- ing doubts. “Ah’m intendin’ tae work the land for the oil that’s here,” he announced, to show them he was wise to their game. They met him with blank looks. “Oil?” echoed Jim. “Bunny, we’ve been stung. How did you know there’s oil?” he asked, and Sandy grinned. “Ve needna keep it oop,” he warned them. “Ah saw the bit bore ye pit doon, wi’ a’ the guid oil aboot. An’, Ah knew Maister Bunny was guan tae Grafton tae thae Rockefeller fowk, an’ forbye, Maister Cochrane was a whee sprung at the pub yestiddy, an’ the bit pussy joomped oot o’ the sack, whiles his claes wes a’ oily juist efter he cam’ frae borin’. An’ ye may as weel ken,” he concluded with a malicious twinkle, ‘noo that the maitter is a’ set- tled, that Ah saw the telegram frae Maister Bunny, at the posty’s, an’ pit twa an’ twa thegither—”’ ‘“‘And made five thousand of the sum,” was. Jim’s conclusion. “Well, Mr. McKechnie, you know more than we do. That bore was a water bore, and the oil was spilt through a clumsy tumble I took. Bunny went to Grafton to see an American friend of ours, over here for the Standard Oil people, and Bunny was after him to get a price for a 167 swell little sixty-foot yawl he has for sale. We are going to take advantage of the shortage of shipping, owing to-the war, to get our share of inter-island trade. Of course the purchase depended on our sale of this property. It was a letter from him with the splendid suggestion that sent me to celebrating. The wire referred to that.” “Ye canna catch an auld birdie wi’ chaff,” retorted Sandy. “Ye made false ree-presentations. Ah heerd ye i’ the par- lor, discussin’ th’ almichty fortune ye wes guan tae mek oot o’ th’ land, an’ ne’er a word aboot a boat. Whut wes that bonny scheme, if ye didna want me tae thenk it wes oil.” ‘‘We made no representations about the property. What you overheard at a pri- vate conversation is not a representation. We were probably referring to an alterna- tive scheme of buying sheep, and pitting them against the rabbits, just after our bore struck water at a depth of a hundred and fifty feet. This took away one of the obstacles to a successful working of the farm, and our idea was that if the sheep and rabbits got on well together, we might introduce a hybrid to the trade that might have great value for the combination of fur wool, which would be the resulting prod- uct. You get the commercial possibilities of the scheme, don’t you, Mr. McKechnie? You might try it. I make you a present of the idea.” Jim smiled pleasantly at the enraged Scot as he concluded his explanation. “Ts it daft ye think Ah am?” he shouted. “Well,” commented Bunny, “some men might think you were to pay such a price for this land, but we are in your confi- dence, and take your word for the fact that with capital it can be made very pro- ductive.” | . ‘““Ah’ll hev the law on ye, if there’s ony law in Australia,” threatened the irate Sandy, in shrill tones. “Tt seems to me,” said Bunny severely, “that we are the aggrieved parties. Our private talk listened to, and our corre- spondence:spied on. I’m not sure that it CORmMICGLOOKS (C@