When he stopped speaking there was a very suggestive 222 silence for a moment. Those who heard him had not the quick temperament of the men of the Western cities. They lived in the stillness of the Bush, and thought before they undertook anything, though, when they moved, it was usually to some purpose. One of the men stood up with a deprecatory gesture.
“Well,” he declared, “it’s a great idea. Boys, wouldn’t you call us blame fools for not thinking of it before?”
He sat down suddenly, before anybody answered him, and the men were still again until another of them rose.
“Nasmyth’s not quite through yet,” he said. “We’ll ask him to go ahead.”
Gordon leaned forward, and touched his comrade’s arm.
“Pitch it to them strong. You’re getting hold,” he whispered encouragingly.
For another five minutes Nasmyth spoke as he felt that he had never spoken before. He was intent and strung up, and he knew that a great deal depended upon the effect he could make. He had failed with the men of the cities, who wanted all the profit. He felt sure that he would henceforward have one or two of them against him, and it was clear that he must either abandon his project or win over these hard-handed men of the Bush. With them behind him, there was, he felt, little that he need shrink from attempting. A ring crept into his voice as he went on, for he knew that he was getting hold as he saw their lips set and the resolute expression of their eyes. They were men who, by strenuous toil, wrung a bare living out of the forest, and now there was laid before them a scheme that in its sheer daring seized upon their attention.
“Boys,” Nasmyth concluded, “I am in your hands. This thing is too big for me to go into alone. Still, it’s 223 due to you to say that, while I meant to give you an option of standing in, it seemed to me it would simplify the thing if I raised most of the money before I came to you. Money is usually scarce in the Bush.”
“That’s a fact,” agreed the shrewd-faced hotel-keeper, who also conducted the store. “Anyway, when you have to trade with folks who take twelve months to square up their bills in.”
Nobody seemed to heed him, and Nasmyth added: