It was those thirty billions that did it.

Mr.Harley was no stoic to sit unmoved in the presence of such wealth, and the graphic Storri made those billions real.
When Storri had done, Mr.Harley gulped and gasped a bit, and then asked if he might retain the armful of papers for further consideration.

He would like to go over them carefully; particularly those Canadian reports and assurances that related to the canal.
"My dear, good friend," cried Storri, with a magnificent wave of the hand, "you may do what you will!" There are men, reckoned shrewd in business, whose shrewdness can be overcome by ciphers.

It is as though they were wise up to seven figures.
Mr.Harley was of these; he had his boundaries.

His instincts were solvent, his policies sound, his suspicions full of life and courage, so that you went no higher than nine millions.