Hutton thought for a moment. “One could sell quite a few ranches in the valley; but it’s going to cost considerable to run the water out, and I can’t quite put my hand on anybody I’d feel like trusting with the work in the cañon. It’s going to be difficult. Besides, Nasmyth has what you might call a first option on the land. Nobody else seems to want it, and the Crown people have evidently given way on a point or two. It’s a sure thing they’d make no concession if we show our hands.” He broke off for a moment, and flung a quick glance at his visitor. “You don’t like the man?”
“I don’t,” said Martial––“that’s a solid fact. Still, it’s not going to count for much. This”––and he waved his hand––“is a matter of business.”
He sat still for a moment or two, with a curious look in his face; for he had called at the hotel Acton’s party had visited on the night that he had endeavoured to crawl unobserved on board the Tillicum. He had no difficulty 216 in discovering that Mrs. Acton and Miss Hamilton had spent the night there, which made it evident that the girl could not have been on board the steamer. He had, however, not made the inquiries until business took him to the hotel several weeks afterwards, and Acton’s manner, when they met in the city, convinced him that the schooner men had been communicative. On thinking the matter over, it became clear that Nasmyth and the skipper had played a trick on him; and, since it had cost him Mrs. Acton’s good-will, without which he could not approach Miss Hamilton, he cherished a bitter grievance against Nasmyth.
“Well,” he inquired, “in case he tries to raise the money elsewhere, what do you suggest?”
“I guess we’ll let him try,” answered Hutton. “He’s not going to raise much when things are humming and every man with capital is putting it into mines and mills. Besides, the work in the cañon’s evidently a big undertaking, and it’s going to run into a long bill for labour. A thing of that kind usually costs four times as much as the man who starts it figures. Well, we’ll leave him to it, and when his money runs out we’ll chip in.”
Martial laughed. “That’s very much my notion. Let him do the work, and then jump in and put up our dummies to locate all the land he can’t take hold of. Once we get a ranch or two recorded, there would be a dozen ways we could get a grip on him. Between us and Charters, we ought to break him.”
They smiled at each other, but in a moment or two Hutton looked thoughtful again.
“You want to understand,” he said, “it’s not my business to break Nasmyth. It’s the money I’m out for. In fact, if there’s an easier way than the one I suggested, I’m going to take it; and with that in view, I’ll send up a man or two I can rely on to investigate.”
“If they get crawling round that cañon and up and down the valley, it will set the blame settlers talking. We want the thing run quietly,” Martial cautioned.