The morning of June 29th brought Cameron, armed with credentials which
empowered him to transact any and all business connected with the
pulp-wood holdings of the Canadian Wild Lands Company, Ltd. Murchison
introduced him to Wentworth, who insisted that the man share his cabin.
"So you are McNabb's man?" queried Cameron with a smile, as he swung
his pack to the floor and seated himself upon the edge of a bunk. "Do
you know, we rather hoped I would not find you here."
"Why?" asked Wentworth, returning the smile.
"Pulp-wood has gone up since that contract was made. If the stuff were
to revert to us we could do much better with it."
"How much better?"
Cameron shot a keen glance at his questioner. "Well, considerably," he
answered non-committally.
"A dollar an acre?"
"Two of them."
A brief silence ensued, during which Wentworth was conscious that the
eyes of the other were upon him. "Seven dollars an acre," he said.
"Pretty high, isn't it, when you consider the inaccessibility to your
markets?"
Cameron laughed. "Inaccessibility to markets don't seem to be worrying
McNabb any. Bringing his paper mills into the woods seems to have
solved that problem. I was talking to the engineer in charge of his
road construction day before yesterday----"
"Engineer in charge of road construction!" exclaimed Wentworth. "What
road construction--where?"
"Why, north of here. You knew he was building a tote-road, didn't you?
I followed the blazed trail clear down to the rapids of the Shamattawa.
And he's pushing it, too--got twenty-five or thirty miles of it ready
for traffic."
"No--I didn't know he had begun construction," admitted Wentworth. "I
knew there was to be a road--laid it out myself. But I did not know
that the work had started."
"Well, it has, and we may as well conclude out business."
"But the options do not expire until noon of July first."
"No, but what is to be gained by waiting here until the last minute?
He intends to close the deal, so why not get at it? I suppose you were
provided with the necessary funds to make the initial payment?"
Wentworth shook his head. "No," he answered. "In fact I have nothing
whatever to do with the transaction. I am an engineer sent up here to
locate the mill site, lay out the tote-road, and incidentally, to make
a survey of additional pulp-wood holdings. I am surprised to hear that
McNabb has begun construction of the road."
Cameron stared at the man in astonishment. "What do you mean?" he
asked, "that McNabb has added the expense of road construction to the
money he put into the options, without making provision for acquiring
title to the property? That does not sound like McNabb--what I've
heard of him."
"He has until noon of the first," reminded Wentworth.
"Yes, but where is he? He knows the North, and the hundred-an'-one
things that can happen to upset a schedule. If I had as much invested
in this thing as he has, you may believe I would have been here with
plenty of time to spare."
Wentworth nodded. "So would I. But in case he does not show up, what
then? The first man that offers seven dollars an acre, and is prepared
to make a substantial payment takes the property?"
"Just so. If McNabb, or his representative, is not here on the stroke
of twelve, the day after to-morrow, with tender of a cash payment of
ten percent. of the purchase price as stipulated in his contract, then
he is out of the reckoning altogether. But why do you ask? You speak
as though there were some doubt in your mind as to McNabb's appearance?"
"You can never tell," answered Wentworth. "He told me he would be here
himself to close the deal at the proper time. If he does not come, it
is no affair of mine, except that I should be out of a job. I need the
job, so I tipped off his chief rival capitalist as to the date of
expiration, and told him that in case for any reason McNabb fell down
on the proposition, he had better show up here at the post on the first
day of July with a big bunch of coin." He paused and grinned at
Cameron. "I was merely playing safe. If McNabb shows up, well and
good. If he don't, well and good again--I still have a job, and you
get seven dollars an acre, instead of five."
"But will the other be here?"
Wentworth shrugged. "That is what I have been asking myself for a
week. Will McNabb come? Will Orcutt come? Or will they both come?
In the latter case I may have let myself in for some unpleasant
complications. But I had to take a chance--to avoid taking a chance."
Cameron laughed. "Let us hope for your sake that only one of the
parties arrives, and for my sake, that it is the rival, for the
additional two dollars an acre will mean an additional million for my
company."