“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?”

“Looks like we’d have to—­if you get in your dam and improvements.  But that’ll take money.  We’ve looked you up, of course, and we know you haven’t it—­nor any backing....  That’s why we’ve come to see you.”

“To be sure,” said Scattergood.  “Goin’ to drive ’way to the railroad, eh?  How if there was a mill right at my dam?  Shorten your drive twenty mile, wouldn’t it, eh?”

“Yes,” said Keith, laughing at Scattergood’s ignorance; “but how about transportation from your mill to the railroad?  We can’t drive cut lumber.”

“Course not,” said Scattergood, “but this valley’s goin’ to open up.  It’s startin’.  There’s only one way to open a valley, and that’s to run a railroad up it....  Narrow-gauge ’u’d do here.  Carry mostly lumber, but passengers, too.”

“Thinking of building one?” asked Crane, almost laughing in Scattergood’s face.

“Thinkin’ don’t cost nobody anythin’,” said Scattergood.  “Ever take a look at that charter of mine?”