Page:Tongues of Flame (1924).pdf/129

 "But Mr. Boland will pay him such a generous figure that he cannot afford to indulge a—we must not encourage him to indulge a mere whim like"

The black eyes of Lahleet were grave with the gravity of the centuries, as she interrupted with: "To us poor aborigines, there are some values that cannot be expressed in figures. The satisfaction of making a farm here out of this tree-covered, root-tunneled soil is a profit to Adam John that cannot be expressed in dollars."

"But, Lahleet!" Henry expostulated." It just isn't common sense for"

"That is what ownership means, isn't it?" the girl inquired coolly, holding him at arm's length, as it were. "Freedom to do what one pleases with one's own, to sell it or keep it, lease it or refuse to, improve it or neglect it? That's all in the ownership idea, isn't it?"

"Certainly," admitted Harrington, baffled by the girl's perverseness.

"Then I repeat: Is Mr. Boland God?"

"Lahleet," rebuked the exasperated lawyer, "of course not. You know as well as I that Mr. Boland is a great big constructive genius who"

"Oh, I shall help you with Adam John," interrupted the girl coolly; "but let me understand one thing. Adam John the little and John Boland the great—they are both the same size before the law?"

Harrington nodded, smiling at the girl's odd conceit.

"And if John Boland wants to buy this island he can want to and offer a million dollars for it; but if Adam John wants to kecp it, he can refuse the million?"

"Why certainly—if he wants to; but we must not let Adam John be so foolish."