aid he, "Gower has bought blueback salmon the
first month of the season for twenty-five cents or less--fish that run
three to four pounds. And there hasn't been a time when salmon could be
bought in a Vancouver fresh-fish market for less than twenty-five cents
a pound."

"Huh!" MacRae grunted.

It set him thinking. He had a sketchy knowledge of the salmon packer's
monopoly of cannery sites and pursing licenses and waters. He had heard
more or less talk among fishermen of agreements in restraint of
competition among the canneries. But he had never supposed it to be
quite so effective as Manuel Ferrara believed.

Even if it were, a gentleman's agreement of that sort, being a matter of
profit rather than principle, was apt to be broken by any member of the
combination who saw a chance to get ahead of the rest.

MacRae took passage for Vancouver the second week in January with a
certain plan weaving itself to form in his mind,--a plan which promised
action and money and other desirable results if he could carry it
through.

CHAPTER VI

The Springboard

With a basic knowledge to start from, any reasonably clever man can
digest an enormous amount of information about any given industry in a
very brief time. Jack MacRae spent three weeks in Vancouver as a one-man
commission, self-appointed, to inquire into the fresh-salmon trade. He
talked to men who caught salmon and to men who sold them, both wholesale
and retail. He apprised himself of the ins and outs of salmon canning,
and of the independent fish collector who owned his own boat, financed
himself, and chanced the market much as a farmer plants his seed, trusts
to the weather, and makes or loses according to the yield and
market,--two matters over which he can have no control.

MacRae learned before long that old Manuel Ferrara was right when he
said no man could profitably buy salmon unless he had a cast-iron
agreement either with a cannery or a big wholesaler. MacRae soon saw
that the wholesaler stood like a wall between the fishermen and those
who ate fish. They could make or break a buyer. MacRae was not long
running afoul of the rumor that the wholesale fish men controlled the
retail price of fresh fish by the simple method of controlling the
supply, which they managed by cooeperation instead of competition among
themselves. He heard this stated. And more,--that behind the big dealers
stood the shadowy figure of the canning colossus. This was told hi