absolute control. I haven't any quarrel with cannery men
for making money. You only amuse me when you speak of doubtful returns.
I wish I could have your cinch for a season or two."

"You shouldn't have any quarrel with us. You started with nothing and
made twenty thousand dollars in a single season," Robbin-Steele
reminded.

"I worked like a dog. I took chances. And I was very lucky," MacRae
agreed. "I did make a lot of money. But I paid the fishermen more than
they ever got for salmon--a great deal more than they would have got if
I hadn't broken into the game. Abbott made money on the salmon I
delivered him. So everybody was satisfied, except Gower--who perhaps
feels that he is ordained by the Almighty to get cheap salmon."

"You're spoiling those men," Robbin-Steele declared irritably. "My
observation of that class of labor is that the more money they get the
less they will do and the more they will want. You can't carry on any
industry on that basis. But that's beside the point. We're getting away
from the question. We want you to deliver those fish to us, if you can
do so at a reasonable price. We should like to have some sort of
agreement, so that we may know what to expect."

"I can deliver the fish," MacRae asserted confidently. "But I don't care
to bind myself to anything. Not this far in advance. Wait till the
salmon run."

"You are a very shrewd young man, I should say." Robbin-Steele paid him
a reluctant compliment and let a gleam of appreciation flicker in his
dead-fish eyes. "I imagine you will get on. Come and see me when you
feel like considering this matter seriously."

MacRae went down the elevator wondering if the gentleman's agreement
among the packers was off, if there was going to be something in the
nature of competition among them for the salmon. There would be a few
more gill-net licenses issued. More important, the gill-netters would be
free to fish where they chose, for whosoever paid the highest price,
and not for the cannery which controlled their license. There would be
scores of independent purse seiners. Would the packers bid against one
another for the catch? It rather seemed to MacRae as if they must. They
could no longer sit back secure in the knowledge that the salmon from a
given area must come straight to their waiting cans. And British
Columbia packers had always dreaded American competition.

Following that, MacRae took train for Bellingham. The people he had
dealt with t