“We can buy it now for one or two dollars less than it costs us to get it out of our own woods,” Halloran added. This interested the cashier very much indeed. Higginson & Company were good, all the way through; and their manager seemed to have a keen business sense. Mr. Higginson's sickness entered his calculations; but still the investment was sound. The amount must be discussed and one or two details mentioned. But it was after a very few minutes of talk that the cashier said: “We shall be very glad to let you have the money, Mr. Halloran.” The arrangements were soon made. Then Hal-loran said good-morning and went down to the telegraph office in the basement of the building. And as this short message hummed over the wires to Crosman, “_Go ahead. Halloran_,” he walked out into the street to begin the battle. All idleness was over now for Halloran--all merely defensive work, all waiting for results. From now on it was to be straight-out fighting; and he knew that the best man would win. Before that Saturday afternoon was far advanced Halloran's agents were at work. Their instructions were simple. “Buy all the one-inch and two-inch stuff you can get, pine and hemlock, in regular lengths and widths,” was what he had said, in starting them out; and before evening orders had been placed in Chicago alone for nearly a million feet. The work would be pushed still further on Monday and Tuesday. Every company in the “combine” would be given an opportunity to sell heavily. Farther up Lake Michigan Crosman was working with equal energy. It was a chance for Crosman, an opportunity to show his metal, and he realized it. There had been some pulling at odds in the office, and the assistant had perhaps been inclined to misunderstand Halloran in more ways than one; but all that was now swept away, and the enthusiasm of vigorous work was in him. For the first time since the fight began he fully understood it; he had been made to see that there was a possibility of winning. And when Halloran's message reached him that morning and he realized that no regular steamer would cross the lake before evening, he hurried a tug into commission, and with Captain Craig and MacGregor to get him over he made the passage to Milwaukee in less than seven hours. Late as it was when he arrived, he not only organized the work for Monday, but succeeded in placing the first few orders.