"Has it struck you that he might wish to sell it, and be taking precautions for exactly the opposite reason?"
Saxton made a little gesture of approval, though he shook his head. "You show you have a little sense now and then, but there's nothing in that view," he said. "Is a man going to lay out dollars on dams and wire-rope slings when he knows that none of them will be any use to him?"
"I think he might. That is, if he wanted investors, who could be induced to take it off his hands, to hear of it."
"The point is that he has only to put the Canopus into the market, and they'd pile down the dollars now."
"Still, it is presumably our business, and not Devine's, you purposed to talk about."
Saxton nodded. "Then we'll start in," he said. "You can't get into the mine, and it has struck me that if you could your eyes wouldn't be as good as a compass and a measuring-chain. Well, that brings us to the next move. When Devine left Vancouver a week ago, he took up a tin case he keeps the plans and patents of the Canopus in with him. You needn't worry about how I'm sure of this, but I am. Those papers will tell us all we want to know."
"I have no doubt they would. Still, I don't see that we are any nearer getting over the difficulty. Devine is scarcely likely to show them me."
"You'll have to lay your hands upon the case. It's in the ranch."
Brooke's face flushed, and for a moment his lips set tight, while he closed one hand as he looked at his confederate. Then he spoke on impulse, "I'll be hanged if I do!"
Saxton, who had, perhaps, expected the outbreak, regarded him with a little sardonic smile.