t his company. And it struck him with a certain
feeling of dread that, if his suspicions were true, Jeanne and Pierre
must also be mixed up in the affair. For had not Jeanne, in her error,
greeted Eileen as though she were a dear friend?

He went directly to the factor's house, and knocked at the door opening
into the rooms occupied by Brokaw and his daughter. Brokaw admitted
him, and at Philip's searching glance about the room he nodded toward a
closed inner door and said:

"Eileen is resting. It's been a hard trip on her, Phil, and she hasn't
slept for two consecutive nights since we left Halifax."

Philip's keen glance told him that Brokaw himself had not slept much.
The promoter's eyes were heavy, with little puffy bags under them. But
otherwise he betrayed no signs of unrest or lack of rest. He motioned
Philip to a chair close to a huge fireplace in which a pile of birch
was leaping into flame, offered him a cigar, and plunged immediately
into business.

"It's hell, Philip," he said, in a hard, quiet voice, as though he were
restraining an outburst of passion with effort. "In another three
months we'd have been on a working basis, earning dividends. I've even
gone to the point of making contracts that show us five hundred per
cent, profit. And now--this!"

He dashed his half-burned cigar into the fire, and viciously bit the
end from another.

Philip was lighting his own, and there was a moment's silence, broken
sharply by the financier.

"Are your men prepared to fight?"

"If it's necessary," replied Philip. "We can at least depend upon a
part of them, especially the men at Blind Indian Lake. But--this
fighting--Why do you think it will come to that? If there is fighting
we are ruined."

"If the people rise against us in a body--yes, we are ruined. That is
what we must not permit. It is our one chance. I have done everything
in my power to beat this movement against us down south, and have
failed. Our enemies are completely masked. They have won popular
sentiment through the newspapers. Their next move is to strike directly
at us. Whatever is to happen will happen soon. The plan is to attack
us, to destroy our property, and the movement is to be advertised as a
retaliation for heinous outrages perpetrated by our men. It is possible
that the attack will not be by northerners alone, but by men brought in
for the purpose. The result will be the same--if it succeeds. The
attack is planned to be a surprise.