"Yes, I suppose I COULD
swing this," he thought. "If the process belonged to me, say,
instead of being out of the question because it isn't my
property--or if I was the kind of man to do such a thing anyhow,
here would be something I could probably get hold of pretty
cheap. They'd want a lot of money for a lease on that big
building over the way--but this, why, I should think it'd be
practically nothing at all."
Then, by chance, meeting an agent he knew, he made
inquiries--merely to satisfy a casual curiosity, he thought--and
he found matters much as he had supposed, except that the owners
of the big building did not wish to let, but to sell it, and this
at a price so exorbitant that Adams laughed. But the long brick
shed in the great muddy lot was for sale or to let, or "pretty
near to be given away," he learned, if anybody would take it.
Adams took it now, though without seeing that he had been
destined to take it, and that some dreary wizard in the back of
his head had foreseen all along that he would take it, and
planned to be ready. He drove in his taxicab to look the place
over again, then down-town to arrange for a lease; and came home
to lunch with his wife and daughter. Things were "moving," he
told them.
He boasted a little of having acted so decisively, and said that
since the dang thing had to be done, it was "going to be done
RIGHT!" He was almost cheerful, in a feverish way, and when the
cab came for him again, soon after lunch, he explained that he
intended not only to get things done right, but also to "get 'em
done quick!" Alice, following him to the front door, looked at
him anxiously and asked if she couldn't help.
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