"That is impossible. You had the chance--"
"My dear, you can"t know my reasons for acting as I did at Omar. But those reasons no longer exist."
"Just what--do you mean by that?" stammered Natalie.
"I mean what I say. I"m ready to marry your mother."
"When?"
"At once. You shall plead my cause for me. You shall add your voice to mine--"
"That isn"t necessary. You know mother is only waiting for you. It means so much to her that she couldn"t refuse."
"Doesn"t it mean anything to you?"
Natalie nodded. "It means more to me than to any one else, perhaps. I have been carrying a great burden, almost more than I can bear.
Sometimes I"ve wished I were a man--for just long enough to make you pay. Oh yes," she continued, as he started to protest. "Don"t let us begin this new life with any false conceptions; you may as well know that I shall always hate you. We shall see very little of each other."
"Nonsense! I can"t let you feel like that. I sha"n"t rest until I win back your love and confidence."
She eyed him searchingly for a moment, then opened her lips to speak, but closed them.
"Well?" he prompted her. "Let us be frank with each other."
"I"m merely wondering how greatly your decision has been influenced by the storm and the fight at the railroad crossing. I understand how you feel toward Mr. O"Neil, and I know that he means to crush you."
"Oh!" Gordon"s face lighted.
"Yes! He has never said so, but I can feel it. I wonder if you have s.n.a.t.c.hed us up in your extremity as a defense."
"Ridiculous! Your suspicions are insulting. I have nothing to fear from him, for he is broken, his credit is gone, he is in desperate straits."
"Are you in any better condition? How long can you fool your people with that pretense of a mine?"
Gordon flushed, but affected scorn. "So! Have you and Gloria begun to balance my wealth against my love? If so--"
"You know she would marry you if you were penniless."
"I hope so--and, indeed, I can"t believe her mercenary. Well, I shall say good-by to Kyak, without idle regret, and we three shall return to Hope, where I can attack my problems with fresh courage. I can well afford my loss here, if by doing so I gain the woman of my desires."
"You want me to go with you?"
"Of course. You can"t stay in Omar, knowing what you do about O"Neil.
Remember, I shall be in the position of a father to you."
"Very well. It is the least I can do. Miss Appleton and I are returning to Omar in a few days. Will you go with us?"
"I shall be delighted, my dear." He smiled upon her in his most fatherly fashion, but she was far from feeling the a.s.surance he meant to convey.
The eighteen-hour train from Chicago bore Murray O"Neil into New York on time, and he hastened directly to the Holland House, where the clerk greeted him as if he had run in from Yonkers instead of from the wilderness of the far northwest. His arrival was always the forerunner of great prosperity for the bell-boys, and there was the customary struggle for his baggage.
An hour later, having bathed and changed his linen, he was whizzing toward lower Broadway, with the roar of the Subway in his ears. New York looked very good to O"Neil, for this time he came not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, and a deep contentment rested in his heart. More than once during the last two years he had made this flying trip across an ocean and a continent, but heretofore he had been burdened with worries and responsibilities. Always he had needed to gather his wits for some supreme effort; always there had been the urgent necessity of raising money. As the S. R. & N. had grown his obligations had increased; and, while he had never returned empty-handed, no one but he knew at what cost of time and strength he had succeeded in financing his venture. Invariably he had left New York mentally and physically exhausted, and his days in the open had barely served to replenish his store of nervous energy for the next campaign.
As he looked back upon it all he was amazed at his daring in attempting to finance a railroad out of his own pocket. But he had won, and the Trust had met with a sharp reverse in attempting to beat him at his own game. He held the winning card, and he looked out upon the world through eyes which were strained and weary, but complacent.
Mr. Herman Heidlemann was expecting him.
"You have the most confident way of arranging appointments from the other side of the world," he began, as O"Neil entered his office.
"Steamships and railroads appear to be your obedient servants."
"Not always. I find railroads very troublesome at times."
"Well, you"re on time to the minute," said Heidlemann. "Now tell me about Kyak. Trevor cables that you were there during the storm which ruined us." The head of the copper syndicate did not look like a man facing ruin; in fact, he seemed more curious to hear of the physical phenomena of that hurricane than of its effect upon his fortunes.
"Kyak was a great mistake," he admitted, when O"Neil had given him the particulars he asked for. "We"re all agreed on that point. Some of our a.s.sociates feel that the whole Alaskan enterprise has been a mistake--mines and all."
"Your mines are as good as they ever were, but Kyak is a long way from Wall Street, and you relied too much upon other people"s judgment."
"We have to rely upon our experts."
"Of course. But that country must have a railroad."
"Must?" Heidlemann lifted his brows. "It has done very well without one so far. Our friends call us crazy for trying to build one, and our enemies call us thieves."
"You can"t afford to give up."
"No. There"s an element of pride in the matter, and I really believe the country does need transportation."
"You can"t understand how badly it needs it."
"Yet it"s a heavy load to carry," said Heidlemann, with conviction, "for a road will lose money for many years. We were willing to wait until the agriculture and the mining developed, even though the profit came only to our children; but--we have been misunderstood, abused by the press and the public. Even Congress is down on us. However, I suppose you came to tell me once more that Omar is the gateway and that we need it."
O"Neil smiled. "That"s hardly necessary now, is it? I own every inch of water-front at that point, and there"s no other harbor. My track will be laid to the glaciers by the time snow flies."
"Trevor reports that a bridge is possible, although expensive."
"It will cost two million dollars."
"I don"t see how it can be built to withstand the ice."
"I"ll guarantee to build it so it will hold."
"What is your proposition?" asked Heidlemann.
"I"ll sell the S.R.&N. for five million dollars and contract to complete the road within two years on a ten-per-cent commission."
"It has cost you about three million dollars, I believe. That would leave you a handsome profit."