"If I find that the timber and its location come up to your account of
it, I'll pay you so many dollars down--whatever we can agree on--when I
get my lease from the land office. Then I'll make another equal payment
the day we start the mill. But I don't bind myself to record the timber
or to put up a mill, unless I'm convinced that it's worth while."
"I'd rather take less money and have a small share in the concern; and
Drayton must stand in."
"It's a question of terms," Vane replied. "I'll consider your views."
They discussed it for a while, and when they had at length arrived at a
provisional understanding, the prospector made a sign of acquiescence.
"We'll let it go at that; but the thing will take time, and I'll
never get the money. If you exercise your option, you'll sure pay it
down to Seely?"
"Celia's his daughter," Drayton explained. "He has no one else. She's a
waitress at the ---- House." He named a hotel of no great standing in the
city. "Comes home at nights, and looks after him as best she can."
Vane glanced round the room. It was evident that Celia's earnings were
small; but he noticed several things which suggested that she had
lavished loving care upon the sick man, probably at the cost of severe
self-denial. This was what he would have expected, for he had spent most
of his nine years in Canada among the people who toil the hardest for
the least reward.
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