For years he had been engaged in every corner of the United States and Canada in such work as he was now doing. In the process of such work, by methods of unscrupulous grafting and blackmail he had contrived a fortune of no inconsiderable amount. So that now he was no ordinary agent. He was a "representative" of the interests he worked for. In his case the distinction was a nice one.
As the result of his encounter with Gordon he had resolved upon the crushing defeat of his adversaries by hurling the entire weight of his personal fortune into the scale. True enough he had bought without regard to price. He bought all he could in the best positions, and even in the quarters which would not meet with the railroad's approval. So his purchases had to be far greater, both in extent and price, than in the ordinary way he would have made at Buffalo Point.
Having thus bought, and thrown his own money into the affair, this was his plan of dealing with the matter. First, he knew this boom was based on sound foundations. The future was assured by the vast coal-fields just opening up. The Bude and Sideley Coal Company was only the first. There would be others, many of them. With the railroad depot at Snake's Fall, the whole of the outlying positions of the city would boom with the rest. Any land round it would be of enormous value. So he purchased in every direction. He bought at "skied" prices from the big holders, so that the railroad should be satisfied as to positions, and he bought largely in the outlying parts of the city where no "skied" prices could rule. Then he pooled the price which he knew the railroad would pay, with his own fortune to pay the whole bill, put the railroad in on the best sites at their own price, and held the balance of his purchases for himself.
It was his only means of justifying to his principals his declining to accept Buffalo Point's terms, and though it meant locking up his available capital in Snake's Fall, he knew, in the end, he would recoup himself with added fortune, and have wrecked those who had rejected his blackmail, and added to their audacity by personal assault. It pleased him to think that Hazel Mallinsbee would also be made to suffer for what he considered her outrageous treatment of himself.
His method was certainly Napoleonic, and for its very audacity it should succeed. As he reviewed his position he could find no appreciable flaws. If the coal were there the place must boom, and—he knew the coal was there.
So he was satisfied.
Five days after making his first deal, those deals which had inspired so much derision, his whole operations were completed. He was feeling contented. It had been a strenuous time, and had demanded every ounce of energy and commercial acumen he possessed to complete the work. He knew that his whole future was at stake, but he also knew that he held the four aces which would be the finally deciding factors in the game. He felt free at last to notify the President of the Union Grayling and Ukataw Railroad of his transactions, and was confident of that shrewd financier's approval and felicitations. Nor were the latter the least desirable in his estimation.
He had already dined in his parlor, as had been his custom since his encounter with Gordon. But now he intended to move abroad. He felt himself to be the arbiter of the fate of these "rubes," as he characterized the citizens of Snake's Fall, and he did not see the necessity for denying himself the adulation such a position entitled him to.
With a self-satisfied feeling he picked up a long code message he had written out and thrust it in his pocket. Then, carefully putting away all other private papers into his dressing-case, and locking it, he sauntered leisurely out of his room.
He intended to give himself his first breathing space for five days, and he lounged downstairs to the hotel office.