“Good morning,” says Mr. Wiggamore. “Don’t you know me?” says Mark, soft and gentle like. “Can’t say I do,” says Wiggamore, but you could tell by his eyes that he did. “I’m Mark Tidd, and these other fellers is with me runnin’ Silas Doolittle Bugg’s mill. I guess m-maybe you remember talkin’ to me about buyin’ our dam.” “Oh yes!” says Wiggamore, making like he was surprised. “So I did. You wouldn’t sell, I remember.” “Not at your f-figger.” “Too bad. Well, if you want to talk about selling now, it’s too late. I don’t want to buy.” “So I judged,” says Mark, “but I sort of f-f-figgered it was square to give you another chance. I b-believe in doin’ business fair and square. That dam is valuable to you. You’ve got to have it. It is worth a lot of m-money to you, and we’ll consider a reasonable offer.” “I wouldn’t offer you a cent,” says Wiggamore. “Don’t you want our dam?” “Yes, but I’m through monkeying with you. I’m not throwing money away. You wouldn’t sell, and so I washed my hands of you. If you get your fingers burnt, why, it’s your own fault. You can’t get in the way of a big enterprise like mine. You did and I’m going to kick you out of the way. That’s all.” “How would you l-like to be in our place?” “I’m not, so I can’t say.” “And you f-f-figger you got us beat? That’s it? You think you got us l-licked with your factory inspectors, and your chattel m-mortgages, and hirin’ our men away from us so we can’t run. You sort of calc’late to git our dam for n-nothin’.” “Oh, not as cheaply as that!” “Mr. Wiggamore, I’m givin’ you one more chance. I’ve played fair with you, and so have all of us. Will you play f-fair with us?” “I won’t have anything to do with you. That dam is mine, or will be in a couple of days. You might as well give up gracefully now. How do you figure you can do anything—a crowd of boys without a cent—against the Power Company? You were beaten before you started.” “We f-figgered on one thing,” says Mark, sort of slow. “We figgered that as big a man as you be wouldn’t stoop to cheat and scheme and bulldoze jest to s-s-save a few dollars. We f-figgered that real business men did business honest and aboveboard. We figgered that somewheres in your big company was men that wouldn’t stand by to git rich by gougin’ other folks out of money they’d worked hard and honest to earn. That’s how we l-looked at it. But I guess we was wrong.” “Don’t talk to me like that, boy,” says Wiggamore.