So, wisely, he kept on building up in a small way, while waiting for bigger things to develop. And as he waited he studied the valley until he could recite every inch of it, and he studied the future until he knew what the future would require of that valley. He knew it before the future knew it and before the valley knew it, and was laying his plans to be ready with pails to catch the sap when others, taken by surprise, would be running wildly about seeking for buckets. Then Crane and Keith arrived in Coldriver.... That day marked Scattergood's emergence from the ranks of country merchants, though he retained his hardware store to the last. That day marked distinctly Scattergood's launching on a greater body of water. For forty years he sailed it with varying success, meeting failures sometimes, scoring victories; but interesting, characteristic in every phase--a genius in his way and a man who never took the commonplace course when the unusual was open to him. "I suppose you've looked this man Baines up," said Crane to Keith when they met in the Coldriver tavern. "I know how much he weighs and how many teeth he's had filled," Keith replied. "He ought not to be so difficult to handle. He hasn't capital enough to put this company of his through and his business experience don't amount to much." "For monkeying with our buzz saw," said Keith, "we ought to let him lose a couple of fingers." "How's this for an idea, then?" Crane said, and for fifteen minutes he outlined his theory of how best to eliminate Scattergood Baines from being an obstruction to the free flowage of their schemes for Coldriver Valley. "It's got others by the hundred, in one form or another," agreed Keith. "This jayhawker'll welcome it with tears of joy." Whereupon they went gladly on their way to Scattergood's store, not as enemies, but as business men who recognized his abilities and preferred to have him with them from the start, that they might profit by his canniness and energy, rather than to array themselves against him in an effort to take away from him what he had obtained. Only by the exercise of notable will power could Crane keep his face straight as he shook hands with ungainly Scattergood and saw with his own eyes what a perfect bumpkin he had to deal with. "I suppose you thought we fellows would be sore," he said, genially. "Dunno's I thought about you at all," said Scattergood. "I was thinkin' mainly about me." "Well, we're not. You caught us napping, of course. We should have grabbed off that dam location long ago--but we weren't expecting anybody to stray in with his eyes open--like yourself.... Of course your property and charter aren't worth a great deal till we start lumbering." "Not to anybody but me," said Scattergood. "Well, we expect to begin operations in a year or so. We'll build a mill on the railroad, and drive our logs down the river." "Givin' my company the drivin' contracts?"