Hedin laughed.  “The reputation of being a fool doesn’t hurt anyone.  It is rather an advantage at times.”

“You have played your part well,” admitted Cameron.  “And McNabb has played his part well—­whatever that part is.  Orcutt said he was losing his grip, was in his dotage.  Well, he will not be the first man that has had to change his mind.  He has gone to inspect the mill site and will return day after to-morrow.  Wentworth accompanied him.  I imagine we will have an interesting half-hour when they find out that the deal is off.”

The formalities of payment were soon over with, and the moment they were completed, Hedin despatched a messenger with a telegram to his employer.

When John McNabb received the message he grinned broadly, and for several minutes sat at his desk and stabbed at his blotter with his pencil point.  “So, Orcutt, Wentworth & Company set out to down poor old John McNabb,” he muttered.  “I kind of figured rope was all Wentworth wanted to hang himself with—­an’ rope’s cheap.  But Orcutt an’ his Eureka Paper Company—­now he must have gone to quite a little bother, first an’ last, an’ some expense.  Too bad!  But I won’t worry about that—­he ought to ‘tend to his bankin’.  Guess I’ll be startin’ North in about ten days.”

A week later McNabb got another wire from the engineer in charge of his road construction.  As he read and reread it, a slow smile trembled upon his lips and widened into a broad grin.

“Sixty-five miles of road completed.  Eureka Paper Company cement and material piling up at road head.  Have their own trucks.  Shall we let them use road?”

The grin became an audible chuckle.  “I don’t understand it.  Orcutt must have cleared out so quick he don’t know the deal is off.”  Then he called a messenger and sent two telegrams.  The first in answer to the one just received.

“Double your force and hurry road to completion in shortest possible time.  Allow all Eureka Paper Company goods to be delivered as fast as received.  Facilitate delivery same to mill site in every way possible.”

The other telegram was to the home office of the engineering firm and read: 

“Hold off on purchase of material for mill until further notice.  Writing full particulars.”

Then he closed his desk and went home where, a few minutes later, his daughter found him packing his outfit in a well worn duffle bag.

XXI

Ever since Jean’s outburst of passion upon the day of Hedin’s arrest, a certain constraint had settled upon father and daughter that amounted, at times, to an actual coldness.  Neither had mentioned the name of Hedin in the other’s hearing, but each evening at dinner, which was the only meal at which they met, the studied silence with which the girl devoted herself to her food bespoke plainer than words that the thought of him was never out of her head.