per out of the wet packet he had brought.
Gordon turned to Nasmyth when he opened it.

"Wheeler's getting ahead," he said. "Here's his announcement that his
concern is turning out a high-grade cedar shingle. That's satisfactory
so far as it goes. I don't quite know how we'd have held out if it
hadn't been for the money we got from him for running the logs down."
Then his voice grew suddenly eager. "Try to get hold of the
significance of this, Derrick: 'We have got it on reliable authority
that certain propositions for the exploitation of the virgin
forest-belt beyond the Butte Divide will shortly be laid before the
Legislature. It is expected that liberal support will be afforded to a
project for the making of new waggon-roads, and we believe that if the
scheme is adopted certain gentlemen in this city will endeavour to
inaugurate a steamboat service with the Western inlets.'" He waved his
hand. "When this particular paper makes an assertion of that kind,
there's something going on," he added. "It's a sure thing that if
those roads are made, it will put another thirty or forty cents on to
every dollar's worth of land we're holding."

"Exactly," replied Nasmyth, whose tense face did not relax. "That is,
it would, if we had run the water out of the valley; but, as it
happens, we haven't cut down very much of the fall yet, and this thing
is going to make the men we have against us keener than ever. They're
probably plotting how to strike us now. Get those letters open."

There was anxiety in his voice, and Gordon started when he had ripped
open one or two of the envelopes.

"This looks like business," he remarked, as he glanced at a letter
from a lawyer who had once or twice handled Nasmyth's affairs in the
city. "It's from Phelps. He says he has been notified that, unless an
agreement can be arrived at, proceedings will be taken by a man called
Hames, who claims to hold one hundred acres on the western side of the
valley, to restrain you from altering the river level. Atterly--he's
the man we've heard from already--it seems, is taking action, too."

"Hames?" repeated Nasmyth. "I've never heard of him. Any way, he can't
hold land on the western side. We haven't sold an acre." He stopped a
moment, and looked hard at Gordon. "That is, I haven't sanctioned it,
and I believe there's nobody holding a share in the project who would
go back on us."

Gordon made a gesture indicating his doubt in the subject, and they
looked