Page:Barr--Stranleighs millions.djvu/315

Rh "Oh, yes, He was perfectly open and above board. Everything was just as he said."

"Well, what had he to say?"

"He talked very plausibly. He said the railway company would provide for traffic wherever they found it, because railway competition was so intense that no road could overlook any appreciable increase of income."

"‘Now,' he said, 'what you need here is a town. Once you possess a town, you can lease and sell to the people. All the old sea-side resorts are overcrowded, and prices run high. Rents are enormous in places like Eastbourne and Brighton.'

"‘But,' we objected, 'we haven't the money to build a town.'

"‘How much money can you raise?' he asked.

"Sir Phillip said he couldn't raise a penny, and I stated that I had fifty thousand pounds to invest.

"‘With fifty thousand pounds,' he said, 'I can build you a town valued at a hundred and fifty thousand, which, the moment expresses begin to run, will be worth two, three, four, five, six hundred thousand.'

"‘How can you do that?' I asked him.

"‘The first thing necessary is a hotel, costing anywhere from five to ten thousand pounds. Then along the front, on each side, build some fine villas. You spend fifty thousand pounds in erect-