"Aye, but they're not done," interrupted McNabb. "Ye'll be knowin' me well enough to know I always have a reason for the things that I do. It's a hard thing I'm askin' of ye, an' in this case I'll show ye the reason, though 'tis not my habit. D'ye mind I told ye that the Eureka material was rollin' down the tote-road by the truck load? Thousands of dollars worth of it every day is bein' delivered at the mill site. Why? Because for some reason Orcutt has not yet found out that he does not own the timber. The minute he does find out, not another pound will be delivered."
"You mean——?"
"I mean that portland cement, an' the reinforcin' steel, an' plate an' whatever else goes into the construction of a paper mill is bein' set down on the Shamattawa, one hundred miles from a railway at Orcutt's expense. And that every ton of it is stuff that won't pay its way out of the woods. The freight an' the haulin' one way doubles the cost. An' even if he tried to take it out, he'd have a hundred miles of tote-road to build. Eureka freight travels only one way on McNabb's tote-road—an' that way is in!"
Hedin stared at the man in astonishment. "And you can buy it at your own figure!" he cried. "Why, you can prevent even his empty trucks from going back. God, man, it will ruin Orcutt!"
"'Tis his own doin's," answered the man. "'Twill serve him right. He should have 'tended to his bankin' instead of pickin' on poor old John McNabb, that should be back of his counter sellin' thread, as he told me himself. Ten cents on the dollar he offered for my tote-road."
"I'll do it!" exclaimed Hedin. "It will be hard, but it will be worth it, to see that crook get what's coming to him. And then I'm going away. Murchison will give me a letter, and I'll strike the Company for a job."
McNabb nodded. "I guess ye're right, about not goin' back to the store," he said slowly. "Your heart is in the North."
There was a strange lump in Hedin's throat. He glanced into the face of his employer, and was surprised at a certain softness in the shrewd gray eyes that gazed far out over the lake. After a time the old man spoke, more to himself than to him. "Ye could both run down for a month or two in the winter!"
"What?" asked Hedin, regarding the speaker with a puzzled expression.
"Both of who? A factor only gets away in the summer."
"So they do—so they do," answered McNabb, absently. "Well, we'll be goin' back now. My engineer, maybe, will be wantin' a conference."