Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/310

 "That accomplished, I propose," the Governor de- clared dramatically, "to take nitrogen from the air and sell it to the government! "

He looked triumphantly into the intent upturned faces into which had crept a look of blankness. There were those who thought vaguely that nitrogen was the scientific name for mosquito, while others confused it with nitre, an excellent emergency remedy for horses.

"They've done it in Germany,"he continued, " and used it in the manufacture of high explosives. Is there any gentleman present who will tell me that what's been done in Germany, can't be done in Wyoming? "

The applause was tumultuous when he had further elucidated and finished. To get something out of nothing made a strong appeal to Prouty. It was criminal for Sudds to waste his abilities in a small conmiunity. They wondered why he did it.

Hiram Butefish, who succeeded the orator, felt a quite natural diffidence in giving to the Club his modest sugges- tion, but as he talked he warmed to his subject.

"I am convinced," declared Mr. Butefish, " that the future of Prouty lies in fossils."

"Human?" a voice inquired ironically.

"Clams," replied Mr. Butefish with dignity. " Also fish and periwinkles. Locked in Nature's boozem over there in the Bad Lands there's a world of them. I kicked 'em up last year when I was huntin' horses, and realized their value. They'd go off like hot cakes to high schools and collectors. We could get a professor in here cheap — a lunger, maybe to classify 'em, and then we'd send out our own salesman. We can advertise and create a market.

" Gentlemen," solemnly, " we have not one iota of reason to be discouraged! With thousands of acres