Brooke unfolded his crude scheme, and the other man watched him keenly until he said, "If that meets with your approbation I could start two of my men getting out the logs almost immediately."
Devine smiled. "Has it struck you that there is a point you have forgotten?"
"It is quite possible there are a good many."
"You can't think of one that's important in particular?"
"No," said Brooke, reflectively, "not just now."
A little sardonic twinkle crept into Devine's eyes. "Well," he said, "before I took hold of any contract of that kind I would like to know just how much I was going to make on it, and what it would cost me."
Brooke looked at him and laughed. "Of course!" he said. "Still, I never thought of it until this moment."
"It's quite clear you weren't raised in Canada," said Devine. "You can worry out the thing during the afternoon and bring along any rough plan you'd like to show me to the ranch this evening. That's fixed? Then there's another thing. Has anybody tried to stop you getting out lumber?"
"No," said Brooke. "I met two men who appeared to be timber-right prospectors more than once, but they made no difficulty."
Devine, who seemed a trifle astonished, looked at him curiously before he turned away. "Then," he said drily, "you are more fortunate than I am."