Let the canal system go smash, and where are these notes?
Nowhere.

I don't propose to lose fifty or sixty thousand dollars for a short-sighted gain of ten." Gretzinger laughed, then tapped the other's shoulder with a forefinger.
"Do you imagine for a minute we'll keep the paper ?" he inquired.
"Well, I should say not! We'll discount it ten, and if necessary twenty, per cent.

to make a quick clean-up and be out.

A mortgage company in the East will attend to that part of the business.

These mortgages run for ten years; you certainly don't think we'll sit around that long waiting for our money and profits.