And upon that he slept.

Morning brought him no qualms or indecisions.  But it did bring him to a consideration of very practical matters, which yesterday’s emotional crisis had overshadowed.  That is to say, Hollister began to take stock of the means whereby they two should live.  It was not an immediately pressing matter, since he had a few hundred dollars in hand, but he was not short-sighted and he knew it would ultimately become so.  Hence, naturally, his mind turned once more to that asset which had been one factor in bringing him back to British Columbia, the timber limit he owned in the Toba Valley.

He began to consider that seriously.  Its value had shrunk appreciably under his examination.  He had certainly been tricked in its purchase and he did not know if he had any recourse.  He rather thought there should be some way of getting money back from people who obtained it under false pretenses.  The limit, he was quite sure, contained less than half the timber Lewis and Company had solemnly represented it to carry.  He grew uneasy thinking of that.  All his eggs were in that wooden basket.

He found himself anxious to know what he could expect, what he could do.  There was a considerable amount of good cedar there.  It should bring five or six thousand dollars, even if he had to accept the fraud and make the best of it.  When he reflected upon what a difference the possession or lack of money might mean to himself and Doris, before long, all his acquired and cultivated knowledge of business affairs began to spur him to some action.  As soon as he finished his breakfast he set off for the office of the “Timber Specialist.”  He already had a plan mapped out.  It might work and it might not, but it was worth trying.

As he walked down the street, Hollister felt keenly, for the first time in his thirty-one years of existence, how vastly important mere bread and butter may become.  He had always been accustomed to money.  Consequently he had very few illusions either about money as such or the various methods of acquiring money.  He had undergone too rigorous a business training for that.  He knew how easy it was to make money with money—­and how difficult, how very nearly impossible it was for the penniless man to secure more than a living by his utmost exertion.  If this timber holding should turn out to be worthless, if it should prove unsalable at any price, it would be a question of a job for him, before so very long.  With the handicap of his face!  With that universal inclination of people to avoid him because they disliked to look on the direct result of settling international difficulties with bayonets and high explosives and poison gas, he would not fare very well in the search for a decent job.  Poverty had never seemed to present quite such a sinister face as it did to Hollister when he reached this point in his self-communings.

Mr. Lewis received him with a total lack of the bland dignity Hollister remembered.  The man seemed uneasy, distracted.  His eyes had a furtive look in them.  Hollister, however, had not come there to make a study of Mr. Lewis’ physiognomy or manner.