"You let Hegan hang on to that line till he's tired. We can't be
wasting a second on him on a day like this. He's only in love
with books and things, but I've got a real live woman in my arms
that's loving me all the time she's kicking over the traces."
CHAPTER XXIII
"But I know something of the fight you have been making," Dede
contended. "If you stop now, all the work you have done,
everything, will be destroyed. You have no right to do it. You
can't do it."
Daylight was obdurate. He shook his head and smiled
tantalizingly.
"Nothing will be destroyed, Dede, nothing. You don't understand
this business game. It's done on paper. Don't you see? Where's
the gold I dug out of Klondike? Why, it's in twenty-dollar gold
pieces, in gold watches, in wedding rings. No matter what
happens to me, the twenty-dollar pieces, the watches, and the
wedding rings remain. Suppose I died right now. It wouldn't
affect the gold one iota. It's sure the same with this present
situation. All I stand for is paper. I've got the paper for
thousands of acres of land. All right. Burn up the paper, and
burn me along with it. The land remains, don't it? The rain
falls on it, the seeds sprout in it, the trees grow out of it,
the houses stand on it, the electric cars run over it.
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