"I'll explain—in confidence. You buy out his interest. Tell him you'll make it very uncomfortable for him if he refuses to sell. See? I'll furnish the money, and afterward you can turn the whole thing over to me."
"Would that be fair and honorable?" asked Jarrod, gravely.
"Would I propose it, otherwise?" returned Easton, as if surprised at the question. "Mr. Jarrod, my feet are in the straight and narrow way, and I will not diverge from the path of rectitude. But if in that path appears a snake, I am surely justified in scotching it. You buy out Wilder, as I said, and then I'll buy you out. Nothing dishonest in that—eh?"
"I'll think it over," said the lawyer. "I may decide to buy you both out."
"Of course. As a blind. But only as a blind, you understand."
"I don't understand everything just now, Mr. Easton. I must give the matter some careful thought."
During several similar conversations, however, Jarrod came to know his man intimately, and as his knowledge grew his respect for the "Father of Tamawaca" decreased. Neither Easton nor Wilder believed the cottagers would ever assert their rights, and therefore each was scheming desperately to oust his partner and get the control in his own hands.
Finally Jarrod decided the time had arrived to act. He got together his committee of five, explained to them his plans, and received the assurance of their loyal support. Then, a meeting being arranged, they called in a body upon Easton at his office and frankly stated that the partners must sell out to the cottagers all their interests at Tamawaca or prepare to stand a law suit for the recovery of the public lands illegally sold and occupied by them.
Perhaps Easton imagined that Jarrod had taken his cue and was acting upon it. He tried to restrain a smile of triumph in order to listen gravely to the proposition.
Wilder sat in a corner and hugged himself gleefully. The old man was "up against it" at last, and Wilder was responsible for forcing him to "face the music"—at least that was Wilder's belief.