He leaned forward, and his very beard bristled at the young man. "Forget your mother, forget your grandmother, forget that there is anything to you except grit and muscle. For if ever two men had a man's work cut out for 'em we're the ones. If ever two men found themselves on the outside of a ripe cheese and needed teeth to gnaw in, we're the men. Money! I can't see anything but dollar bills hangin' from those spruce-trees. But you've got to put on brad-boots and climb to get them. You've got to walk over men to get 'em!" He was striding about the little room. "I reckon I seem a little excited," he added, with a catch in his voice. "But by the priest that hammered the tail for the golden calf, I've got reasons to be excited. I've smelt it comin' for two years, son! I 'ain't said anything. I didn't say anything to you when I took you into partnership; I didn't dare to. But I smelt it all the time. I 'ain't watched the comin's and goin's of certain men at Castonia for nothin'! Let 'em bring guns and fishin'-poles! They can't fool me. I smelt it comin'. And now, by ----, it's come!" Again he banged his fist on the table and glared down on his partner. The partner stared back at him with so much dismay and reproachful inquiry that Ide blew off his superfluous excitement in one vigorous "Poof!" and sat down. "The sum and substance of it is, those old Hullin' Machine falls ain't goin' to bellow away all them thousands of hoss-power in empty noise any longer. But they've made a noise big enough to reach the crowd that's organized to fight the paper trust. See now?" Wade's eyes gleamed in swift comprehension. "The independents are goin' to develop that power. They're goin' to build the biggest paper-mill in the world there. They're goin' to extend the railroad up to Castonia. They're goin' to do it all on an old charter that every one had forgotten except the lobby clique that put it through and has been holdin' it for speculation. And why I know it all and no one else knows it on the outside yet, my boy, is because they've had to come to _me_! They've _had_ to come to _me_!" And he promptly answered the eager though mute inquiry in the young man's eyes. "Every dollar that I could save, rake, and borrow for years I've been putting into shore rights and timber. What timber country I couldn't buy I've leased stumpage on. I've smelt it all comin'. And now they've had to come to me, Wade. They've bonded the shore rights for a purchase, and it's all settled." "With all my heart I'm glad for you, Mr. Ide!" cried the young man, with a sincerity that put a quiver into his voice. And both hands seized the hands of the magnate of Castonia in a grip that brought gratified tears to the other's eyes.