Part 33 (1/2)

”My dear,” she said, ”if he does come you must put him off.”

”Why?” Agatha asked, in a low, strained voice.

”For one thing, because we want to keep you.” Mrs. Hastings looked at her with a very friendly smile. ”Are you very anxious to make it up with Gregory?” A s.h.i.+ver ran through the girl. ”Oh,” she exclaimed, ”I can't answer you that! I must do what is right!”

To her astonishment, Mrs. Hastings drew her a little nearer, stooped and kissed her.

”Most of us, I believe, have that wish, but the thing is often horribly complex,” she said. ”Anyway, you must put Gregory off again, if it's only for another month or two. I fancy you will not find it difficult.”

She turned away, thus ending the conversation, but her manner had been so significant that Agatha, who did not sleep well that night, decided, if it was possible, to act on the well-meant advice.

It happened that a little dapper man who was largely interested in the land agency and general mortgage business spent that evening with Hawtrey in Wyllard's room at the Range. He had driven around by Hawtrey's homestead earlier in the afternoon, and had deduced a good deal from the state of it, though this was a point he kept to himself.

Now he lay on a lounge chair beside the stove smoking one of Wyllard's cigars and un.o.btrusively watching his companion. There was a roll of bills in his pocket with which Gregory had very reluctantly parted.

”In view of the fall in wheat it must have been rather a pull for you to pay me that interest,” he remarked.

”It certainly was,” Hawtrey admitted with a rueful smile. ”I'm sorry it had to be done.”

”I don't quite see how you made it,” persisted the other man. ”What you got for your wheat couldn't have done much more than cover working expenses.”

Hawtrey laughed. He was quite aware that his visitor's profession was not one that was regarded with any great favor by the prairie farmers, but he was never particularly cautious, and he rather liked the man.

”As a matter of fact, it didn't, Edmonds,” he confessed. ”You see, I practically paid you out of what I get for running this place. The red wheat Wyllard raises generally commands a cent or two a bushel more from the big milling people than anything put on the market round here.”

Edmonds made a sign of agreement. He had without directly requesting him to do so led Hawtrey into showing him around the Range that afternoon, and having of necessity a practical knowledge of farming he had been impressed by all that he had noticed. The farm, which was a big one, had evidently been ably managed until a recent date, and he felt the strongest desire to get his hands on it. This, as he knew, would have been out of the question had Wyllard been at home, but with Hawtrey, upon whom he had a certain hold, in charge, the thing appeared by no means impossible.

”Oh, yes,” he replied. ”I suppose he was reasonably liberal over your salary.”

”I don't get one. I take a share of the margin after everything is paid.”

Edmonds carefully noted this. He was not sure that such an arrangement would warrant one in regarding Hawtrey as Wyllard's partner, but he meant to gather a little more information upon that point.

”If wheat keeps on dropping there won't be any margin at all next year, and that's what I'm inclined to figure on,” he declared. ”There are, however, ways a man with nerve could turn it to account.”

”You mean by selling wheat down.”

”Yes,” said Edmonds, ”that's just what I mean. Of course, there is a certain hazard in the thing. You can never be quite sure how the market will go, but the signs everywhere point to still cheaper wheat next year.”

”That's your view?”

Edmonds smiled, and took out of his pocket a little bundle of market reports.

”Other folks seem to share it in Winnipeg, Chicago, New York, and Liverpool. You can't get behind these stock statistics, though, of course, dead low prices are apt to cut the output.”

Hawtrey read the reports with evident interest. All were in the same pessimistic strain, and he could not know that the money-lender had carefully selected them with a view to the effect he hoped to produce.

Edmonds, who saw the interest in Hawtrey's eyes, leaned towards him confidentially when he spoke again.

”I don't mind admitting that I'm taking a hand in a big bear operation,”