He assumed from my answer that I did not think much of nitrates, and announced his intention of investing the money, in consequence, in the Union Pacific Bank.
"I told him by all means to do so, if he liked.
"He paused, and seemed to be puzzling it out.

Then he smiled knowingly, and said he thought he understood what I meant.

It was very kind of me.
He should put every dollar he possessed in the Terra del Fuego Nitrate Company.
"He rose (with difficulty) to go.

I stopped him.

I knew, as certainly as I knew the sun would rise the next morning, that whichever company I advised him, or he persisted in thinking I had advised him (which was the same thing), to invest in, would, sooner or later, come to smash.