Chương Chương 49 · Lester had been doing some pretty hard thinking, but so far he had

been unable to formulate any feasible plan for his re-entrance into

active life. The successful organization of Robert's carriage trade

trust had knocked in the head any further thought on his part of

taking an interest in the small Indiana wagon manufactory. He could

not be expected to sink his sense of pride and place, and enter a

petty campaign for business success with a man who was so obviously

his financial superior. He had looked up the details of the

combination, and he found that Bracebridge had barely indicated how

wonderfully complete it was. There were millions in the combine. It

would have every little manufacturer by the throat. Should he begin

now in a small way and "pike along" in the shadow of his giant

brother? He couldn't see it. It was too ignominious. He would be

running around the country trying to fight a new trust, with his own

brother as his tolerant rival and his own rightful capital arrayed

against him. It couldn't be done. Better sit still for the time being.

Something else might show up. If not--well, he had his

independent income and the right to come back into the Kane Company if

he wished. Did he wish? The question was always with him.

It was while Lester was in this mood, drifting, that he received a

visit from Samuel E. Ross, a real estate dealer, whose great, wooden

signs might be seen everywhere on the windy stretches of prairie about

the city. Lester had seen Ross once or twice at the Union Club, where

he had been pointed out as a daring and successful real estate

speculator, and he had noticed his rather conspicuous offices at La

Salle and Washington streets. Ross was a magnetic-looking person of

about fifty years of age, tall, black-bearded, black-eyed, an arched,

wide-nostriled nose, and hair that curled naturally, almost

electrically. Lester was impressed with his lithe, cat-like figure,

and his long, thin, impressive white hands.

Mr. Ross had a real estate proposition to lay before Mr. Kane. Of

course Mr. Kane knew who he was. And Mr. Ross admitted fully that he

knew all about Mr. Kane. Recently, in conjunction with Mr. Norman

Yale, of the wholesale grocery firm of Yale, Simpson & Rice, he

had developed "Yalewood." Mr. Kane knew of that?

Yes, Mr. Kane knew of that.

Only within six weeks the last lots in the Ridgewood section of

"Yalewood" had been closed out at a total profit of forty-two per

cent. He went over a list of other deals in real estate which he had

put through, all well-known properties. He admitted frankly that there

were failures in the business; he had had one or two himself. But the

successes far outnumbered the bad speculations, as every one knew. Now

Lester was no longer connected with the Kane Company. He was probably

looking for a good investment, and Mr. Ross had a proposition to lay

before him. Lester consented to listen, and Mr. Ross blinked his

cat-like eyes and started in.

The idea was that he and Lester should enter into a one-deal

partnership, covering the purchase and development of a forty-acre

tract of land lying between Fifty-fifth, Seventy-first, Halstead

streets, and Ashland Avenue, on the southwest side. There were

indications of a genuine real estate boom there--healthy,

natural, and permanent. The city was about to pave Fifty-fifth Street.

There was a plan to extend the Halstead Street car line far below its

present terminus. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, which ran near

there, would be glad to put a passenger station on the property. The

initial cost of the land would be forty thousand dollars which they

would share equally. Grading, paving, lighting, tree planting,

surveying would cost, roughly, an additional twenty-five thousand.

There would be expenses for advertising--say ten per cent, of the

total investment for two years, or perhaps three--a total of

nineteen thousand five hundred or twenty thousand dollars. All told,

they would stand to invest jointly the sum of ninety-five thousand, or

possibly one hundred thousand dollars, of which Lester's share would

be fifty thousand. Then Mr. Ross began to figure on the profits.

The character of the land, its salability, and the likelihood of a

rise in value could be judged by the property adjacent, the sales that

had been made north of Fifty-fifth Street and east of Halstead. Take,

for instance, the Mortimer plot, at Halstead and Fifty-fifth streets,

on the south-east corner. Here was a piece of land that in 1882 was

held at forty-five dollars an acre. In 1886 it had risen to five

hundred dollars an acre, as attested by its sale to a Mr. John L.

Slosson at that time. In 1889, three years later, it had been sold to

Mr. Mortimer for one thousand per acre, precisely the figure at which

this tract was now offered. It could be parceled out into lots fifty

by one hundred feet at five hundred dollars per lot. Was there any

profit in that?

Lester admitted that there was.

Ross went on, somewhat boastfully, to explain just how real estate

profits were made. It was useless for any outsider to rush into the

game, and imagine that he could do in a few weeks or years what

trained real estate speculators like himself had been working on for a

quarter of a century. There was something in prestige, something in

taste, something in psychic apprehension. Supposing that they went

into the deal, he, Ross, would be the presiding genius. He had a

trained staff, he controlled giant contractors, he had friends in the

tax office, in the water office, and in the various other city

departments which made or marred city improvements. If Lester would

come in with him he would make him some money--how much he would

not say exactly--fifty thousand dollars at the lowest--one

hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand in all likelihood. Would

Lester let him go into details, and explain just how the scheme could

be worked out? After a few days of quiet cogitation, Lester decided to

accede to Mr. Ross's request; he would look into this thing.