"And," continued Wentworth, emboldened by the placidity of the other's tone, "if you had been wiser, you wouldn't have lost your pulp-wood holdings. Oh, there's no use beating about the bush--I knew the minute Jean told me you had come in by the tote-road, that you had seen the Eureka trucks hauling in Eureka material. We put one over on you, McNabb, and you might as well be a sport and make the best of it." The old Scot nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe ye're right," he admitted. "But wasn't it a bit scurvy trick ye played me, acceptin' my money an' usin' it to double-cross me?" "Business, my dear man! Merely business! I saw my chance, and I took it, that's all. Ten thousand a year, and a ten percent interest in a paper mill isn't so poor--and I'm not yet thirty. It takes brains to make money, and you can bet I'll make my money before my brain begins to slip cogs. It's expensive--this slipping of cogs." "Maybe ye're right," repeated McNabb. "I'll tell the world I'm right! It won't be but a few years till I'll be the big noise around this part of Canada! Brains to figure out a proposition, and nerve to carry it through--that's all it takes to make this old world pay up what it owes you." "How he hates himself!" exclaimed Jean, and from his position in the shadows, Hedin saw that her eyes flashed. His heart gave a great bound, and it was with an effort that he restrained himself from pushing into the group. Was it possible--? A step sounded outside, and the next moment the screen door swung open to admit the figure of a man who strode into the lamp-light and glanced about the faces of the assembly. The man was Cameron. "A fine two days' stay you made of your trip to the mill site," he grumbled, addressing Wentworth. "I waited here for a week for you or Orcutt to show up, and then I decided to hunt you. I followed you to Winnipeg, and from there to Ottawa, and back again to the head of the tote-road. Orcutt had left for the States the day before I got there, but they said you were down at the mill site. I rode down on a truck only to find that you had come over here for your outfit." "Well, now you've found me, what's on your mind?" grinned Wentworth. "I have a memorandum here in my pocket signed by Orcutt in which he authorized you to transact any and all business regarding the pulp-wood lands." "That's correct," admitted Wentworth. "I am a stockholder, an officer in the company, and its sole representative in the field. Fire away. What's this business that's so all-fired important as to send you chasing all over Canada to reach me?" "My business," replied Cameron gravely, "is to return to you as representative of the Eureka Paper Company, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which amount was paid over to me by Mr. Orcutt, and which represents the initial payment of ten percent of the purchase price of certain pulp-wood lands described in the accompanying contract of sale."