III
The telephone bell interrupted Duff with an insistent jangling. Winch answered the call. “It’s Slack,” he said, placing a hand over the receiver. “He wants to talk to you.”
He passed the desk instrument to Duff. “Hello—yes, Duff speaking, Slack,” answered the latter. “Oh, I’ve been back in town since yesterday— Yes, it is unfortunate about Gildersleeve— No, nothing concerning him except what I’ve read in the papers— What’s that?— Yes, pretty busy— You are going out of town for a few days?— Well, right after you come back— Let me know and I’ll drop over— Thanks.”
Duff put up the phone. “Now, how the devil did he find out I was here?” he asked. “I left no word at the hotel nor at the plant as to where I was going. Wants to have a talk with me about something important right after he gets back from a trip to Ottawa.”
Duff rose and picked up his hat.
“Slack’s an oily customer,” commented Martin Winch stifling a sigh of relief that the interview with this fussy little man was over.
“Oily is the word, but I’m pretty well convinced he’s nothing more than a straw-boss at that,” returned Duff. “I’d give a mint of money, and so would a number of other people, to know who does Slack’s thinking for him.”
Duff departed in a finicky mood. A nasty doubt was growing within him as to the degree of co-operation he might expect from the Kam City Pulp and Paper Mills’ lawyer, a doubt engendered by Winch’s apathetic attitude. No doubt Martin Winch, K.C., in common with many others, entertained a wholesome respect for the uncanny power of the North Star Company and its penchant for sooner or later squaring accounts with those who became over-zealous in meddling with its affairs. The disappearance of Norman T. Gildersleeve, head of the parent company controlling the Kam City Company, at this critical moment had more than likely shattered the initiative of Winch, who seemed to have small confidence in Duff’s ability to cope single-handed with the cunning of the North Star. It might be, grimly speculated Duff, that Winch was seriously considering the matter of throwing up his retainer and allowing some other legal firm to appropriate the fee and the hazards that went with it.