At the appointed hour Donald and Douglas entered the office of the R. C. & L. Co. Robert Rennie greeted Donald with a friendly smile and motioned to chairs near the desk. “You have some papers with you, I presume,” he said.
Donald placed the rough plans on the desk before him. For five minutes Robert Rennie studied them quietly while Donald fidgeted. Without comment, he leaned back in his chair for a moment, apparently in deep thought. Presently he pressed a button at the side of his desk.
“Send Renwick, Bolton and King here,” he said to the boy who answered the bell.
As the men entered the room Donald had no difficulty in recognizing Renwick from Gillis’s description. Robert Rennie rose to introduce Donald, then spoke in quick, flashing sentences, that went straight to the heart of things, as he spread the plans on the table before them.
As Donald had anticipated, Renwick, after a short scrutiny of the papers, objected strenuously, his chief objection being the initial cost, together with the fact that experience had demonstrated that only small mills had proved a success when electrically driven. Bolton was of the same opinion, but he admitted that if the supply of timber were sufficient to keep the mill in operation for years, the initial cost would be offset by the economy of operation.
King, the company’s chief engineer, vouchsafed no opinion, but sat with Donald’s plans before him, copying the figures in his note-book.
Robert Rennie glanced at Donald expectantly.
Donald spoke of the lessened cost of operation in an electrically-driven mill by the reduction of the number of millwrights, oilers and helpers, the lower insurance rates, the saving on line-shafting, belts and oil, of the advantage in speed over a steam-mill, etc. As he warmed to the subject he came to his feet and leaned over the desk.
“As you gentlemen know, the greatest enemy of the mill-owner is fire. With a steam-mill of the size you are to build, with donkey engines and locomotives operated by steam, you will have a battery of smokestacks that will be an hourly menace during the summer months in the dry air at that altitude. Electrify your mill and donkey engines and you will reduce the fire hazard by seventy-five per cent. I don’t ask you to accept my opinion. I advise you to investigate thoroughly before deciding. An electric mill with the enormous power available would be a credit, not only to this company, but to the Province as well.”
Robert Rennie’s brain functioned with a clear-cut precision. He would listen to the advice of his experts with an attentive ear, and his decision was usually made before the last one had ceased talking.