with those timber options of the old man's,
with your offer for them?"

"Well?" Simmons repeated. His face was now absolutely blank; he sat turned
from his ledgers, facing Gordon, without a tremor.

"It's no use, Simmons," Gordon Makimmon admitted; "I was out by the old
mill this morning. I saw you both, heard something that was said. That
railroad will do a lot for values around here, but mostly for timber."

Instantly, and with no wasted regrets over lost opportunities, Simmons
changed his tactics to meet existing conditions. "Your wife's estate
controls about three thousand acres of timber," he pronounced. "What will
you take for them?"

"How much do you control?" Gordon asked.

"About twenty-five hundred at present."

Gordon paused, then, "Lettice will take thirty dollars an acre."

"Why!" the other protested, "Pompey bought them for little or nothing.
You're after over two hundred per cent. increase."

"What do you figure to get out of yours?"

"That doesn't concern us now. I've had to put this through--a tremendous
thing for Greenstream, a lasting benefit--entirely by myself. I will have
to guarantee a wicked profit outside; I stand alone to lose a big sum.
I'll give you ten dollars for the options."

Gordon rose. "I'll see the railroad people myself," he observed; "and find
out what I can do there."

"Hold on," Simmons waved him back to his chair. "If there's too much talk
the thing will get out. You know these thick skulls around here--at the
whisper of transportation you couldn't cut a sapling with a gold axe. It
took managing to interest the Tennessee and Northern; they are going
through to Buffalo; a Greenstream branch is only a side issue to them." He
paused, thinking. "There's no good," he resumed, "in you and me getting
into each other. The best thing we can do is to control all the good
stuff, agree on a price, and divide the take."

Gordon carefully considered this new proposal. It seemed to him palpably
fair. "All the papers would have to be made together," he added; "what's
for one's for the other."

Now that the deal was fully exposed Valentine Simmons was impatient of
small precautions. "Can't you see how the plan lays?" he demanded
irritably. "We'll draw up a partnership. Don't get full and talk," he
added discontentedly. It was evident that he keenly resented the absence
of Pompey Hollidew from the transaction.

"A thing like this," he informed the other, "ain't put through in a wee