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141 "Well, dear boy, I've got the cold cash in hand to take up that option; so if you'll turn it over to me I'll settle the matter in a jiffy."

"In what way?" asked Jarrod.

"Why, I'll pay Easton his twenty thousand and let him go. And then I'll begin an era of public improvements, and try to induce the cottagers to fix things up a bit."

"I can't let you have the option," replied Jarrod. "It was given to me as trustee for the cottagers, and belongs to them."

"Have they got thirty thousand dollars to take it up?"

"No; not yet."

"And they never will have it," declared Wilder. "Your cottagers are a lot of corn-cobs, and you could n't squeeze any juice out of them with a cider-press."

"I'm not sure of that," returned Jarrod, smiling. "Anyhow, the option is theirs to accept or reject, and