Gordon, indeed, had been generous to them both.  Since his marriage his attitude had changed entirely.  He was polite, agreeable, charmingly devoted:  no ship arrived without some tangible and expensive evidence of his often-expressed desire to make his wife and stepdaughter happy; he anticipated their slightest wish.  Under his assiduous attentions Natalie’s distrust and dislike had slowly melted, and she came to believe that she had misjudged him.  There were times when he seemed to be overdoing the matter a bit, times when she wondered if his courtesy could be altogether disinterested; but these occasions were rare, and always she scornfully accused herself of disloyalty.  As for Gloria, she was deeply contented—­as nearly happy, in fact, as a woman of her temperament could be, and in this the daughter took her reward.

Natalie arrived at Omar in time to see the full effect of the good news from New York, and joined sincerely in the general rejoicing.  She returned after a few days, bursting with the tidings of O’Neil’s victory.

Gordon listened to her with keenest attention; he drew her out artfully, and when he knew what he had sent her to learn he gave voice to his unwelcome surprise.

“Jove!” he snarled.  “That beggar hoodwinked the Heidlemanns, after all.  It’s their money.  What fools!  What fools!”

Natalie looked up quickly.

“Does it affect your plans?” she asked.

“Yes—­in a way.  It consolidates my enemies.”

“You said you no longer had any ill feeling toward Mr. O’Neil.”

Gordon had resumed his usual suavity.  “When I say enemies,” he qualified, “of course, I mean it only in a business sense.  I heard that the Trust had withdrawn, discouraged by their losses, but, now that they re-enter the field, I shall have to fight them.  They would have done well to consult me—­to buy me off, rather than be bled by O’Neil.  They shall pay well for their mistake, but—­it’s incredible!  That man has the luck of the devil.”

That evening he and Denny sat with their heads together until a late hour, and when they retired Gordon had begun to whip new plans into shape.

XX

HOW GORDON CHANGED HIS ATTACK

O’Neil’s return to Omar was triumphal.  All his lieutenants gathered to meet him at the pier and the sincerity of their welcome stirred him deeply.  His arrangements with Illis had taken time; he had been delayed at Seattle by bridge details and the placing of steel contracts.  He had worked swiftly, and with such absorption that he had paid little heed to the rumors of Gordon’s latest activities.  Of the new venture which his own success had inspired he knew only the bare outline.  He had learned enough, however, to arouse his curiosity, and as soon as the first confusion of his arrival at the front was over he asked for news.

“Haven’t you read the papers?” inquired “Happy Tom.”  He had attached himself to O’Neil at the moment of his stepping ashore, and now followed him to headquarters, with an air of melancholy satisfaction in mere physical nearness to his chief.