thousand pounds. All those drastic actions you predict are impossible if Sanderson can pay back his loan and rescue his railway stock."
"But the railway stock is valueless so long as you have no connection with the Great Southern."
"I know it is, but, on the other hand, the new town of Gorham-on-Sea is useless to the Great Southern Company as long as we hold the little railway line. Once we rescue the railway stock, valueless or not as it is on the market, we stand between the Great Southern Company and the town of Gorham-on-Sea. The Great Southern Company will then be compelled to come to terms with us."
"I don't see that, Peter. I don't see that at all. The Great Southern Company need do absolutely nothing except run their trains past the end of your line, that is even if I were to give you the twenty- six thousand pounds to-morrow. The Great Southern Railway Company only needs to wait. You can't hold on. You've got to pay that interest, and you've got to keep your houses in repair. Your town will speedily go to rack and ruin if nobody is living there. I'm quite willing to give you the twenty-six thousand pounds, but I beg to point out, Mackeller, that you've only postponed the evil day. You'll never be able to return me the money I lend you, and you've fixed yourself in such a corner that you can't get out."
