everal commissions,
halted before him.

"Hello! Quite alone, Thurston, and worrying over something as usual,"
he began, with Western brusqueness. "What has gone wrong? Have more
of your dams burst, up yonder? One would fancy that floundering around
through the ice and snow up there would be more congenial than these
frivolities. I'm not great on them either, but it's a matter of
dollars and cents with me. You perhaps know a little about this
self-made--that's your British term, I think--company."

"Not so much as you do," answered Geoffrey. "Still, I have been
wondering how some of the men earned their money. I understand that
they have sense enough to be proud of their small beginnings, but they
do not furnish instructive details as to the precise manner in which
they achieved their success."

The capitalist, who was one of the class described, laughed
good-humoredly, as he seated himself beside Thurston.

"Well, how are you getting on up in the valley?" he inquired, and
Geoffrey's eyes expressed faint amusement as he answered:

"As well as we expected, and, if we had our difficulties, you would
hardly expect me to tell them to a director of the Industrial
Enterprise Company."

"Perhaps not!" the capitalist smiled, for the Industrial Enterprise was
the corporation which had opposed Savine's reclamation scheme.
"Anyway, the company is a speculation with me; my colleagues manage it
without much of my assistance. But say, what's the matter with your
respected chief? He has come right out of his shell to-night."

The speaker glanced towards Savine, who was surrounded by a group of
well-known men.

"I tell you, Thurston, there's something uncanny about that man of
late," he continued. "However, knowing there's no use trying to fool
you, I'll give you a fair warning and come straight to something I may
as well say now as later. Savine will go down like a house of cards
some day, and those who lean upon him will find it, in our language,
frosty weather. Now, suppose we made you a fair offer, would you join
us?"

A curt refusal trembled upon Geoffrey's lips, when he reflected that,
as soon as the work was finished, his relations with Savine would be
drawn closer still. In the meantime, it was not advisable to give any
hint to a possible enemy.

"I couldn't say until I heard what the offer is," he answered
cautiously.

"You're a typical cold-blooded Britisher," asserted the other man. "I
don't kno