less times, but
the stakes were too high to permit of half measures. There must be a
way.

One would have to be careful, of course, not to put oneself too much in
the power of unscrupulous people, and, alas! the world was full of
unscrupulous people. It was a pity that people could be so unscrupulous
as to take advantage of a bargain made in good faith. That was
blackmail. However, the prestige of the Nelson name was great, the
power of its money was potent, and Henry believed that he could protect
himself from eventualities. After cautious deliberation he sent word to
one of his men in the Ranger field that he wished to see him.

The man came promptly, and when he left Henry Nelson's house after a
conference he carried with him a perfectly clear idea why he had been
sent for. This despite the fact that he had not been told in so many
words. He knew, for instance, that a certain Calvin Gray had become a
menace to his employers, so dangerous that it was worth to them a
substantial fortune to be rid of him, and that while Henry Nelson could
under no circumstances countenance anything illegal, anything savoring
of violence, nevertheless if some accident should befall Gray, if some
act of God should put an end to him, there would be no disposition on
Henry's part to question the divine origin of that calamity.
Furthermore, the speaker had made it plain that if Providence did take
a hand in some such mysterious manner, he would then be in a position
amply to reward his employee for many acts of loyalty that had
apparently passed unrecognized. For instance, profitable deals were
forever coming up, new acreage was constantly being acquired, and it
would be easy to carry a third party for an interest which was bound to
make that third party rich.

All this was expressed with admirable vagueness, but the man understood.

So much accomplished, Nelson went to Dallas and there undertook to
learn something about the size of Calvin Gray's profits, who was behind
him and the extent of their backing, and what his prospects were. He
followed every avenue of information; he even went so far as to hire an
investigator and send him north to look up Gray's record and to follow
his tracks as far back as possible. Nelson was reconnoitering behind
the enemy's lines and testing the strength of his position.

When he returned home Gray was gone, whither he could not learn. As the
days passed without further developments, Nelson began to bel