He waved his hand as though to indicate that he had closed the subject, but when Weston took his departure half an hour later the contractor looked remarkably thoughtful.
“If he weren’t up against the Hogarth Combine he and Wannop might put that scheme through,” he mused. “As it is, I guess one way or another I’ve got to help him out.”
Then he rose and descended to the room where his daughter was.
“I’ve had an interesting talk with Mr. Weston,” he said indifferently. “That’s quite a smart young man, but I guess one could call him a little obstinate.”
Ida smiled at this, though she suspected her father’s observation was not quite as casual as it seemed.
“Yes,” she said, “in some respects I think he is. But how has he made that clear to you?”
Stirling, sitting down opposite her, laughed.
“He’s had an offer for his mine that most of the bush prospectors would have jumped at, and if he’d played his cards judiciously the people who made it would no doubt have doubled it. I suggested that course to him, but it wasn’t any use. Mr. Weston is one of the men who can’t make a compromise.”
“Isn’t that a reasonable attitude? He presumably wants his rights.”
“The little man,” observed Stirling, “has no rights that he isn’t prepared to hold on to in a rather uneven fight. With Weston it’s all or nothing, and just now I don’t quite know which he’ll get. He and his partners will have to stake everything they own on a very uncertain game.”