Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/405

 Nace was deeply impressed by this and showed it by the way his heavy face lengthened out. Then he admitted, “Of course I’m after the money. So is the Great Northern. I insist I’ve been rather cut up by the way the company has knocked me, but as you say there’s no use in my cutting off my nose to spite my face. I’ll be here at eight o’clock sharp to-morrow morning to talk with Thaxter. Maybe, we can arrive at some agreement.”

Left alone the manager’s facial expression changed. It was as if he had slipped aside a mask, revealing the true Hatton. Deep lines drew down his mouth and he bowed his head in his hands to think.

As Abner had said it was he who had taken a hostile initiative against Nace and had placed the company on record as intending to sue the scheming operator. He could see now that he had moved too fast. The papers throughout New England had played up the proposed suit for columns. Nace had raged and was reported as laying large wagers that he would retain the land till he saw fit to sell it. Public opinion had been with the company. It seemed preposterous to believe that the all-powerful