The Man in the Twilight

t to a finish, to fight with the last ounce of strength, the last gasp of breath. He was sitting at the desk, opposite his friend and employ

different type. His pale face, his longish black hair, brushed straight back from an abnormally high forehead, suggested the face

hat last b

forceful, and he thrust out a hand pointing at t

shadow of a smile as he t

gent-the man Idepski. My informant tells me he saw the latter leaving the steam-packet office. It suggests things a

d the hand grasping the letter was not quite steady. But when he spoke his t

," Standing said. "His whisper's a si

nking, thinking hard. And his thought was mostly of the man whose shaking hand betrayed hi

o. He's got big finance in the Skandinavia bunch in Quebec. We know all about that. It's Idepski. Idepski ain't visiting the packet office for his health. He ain't figgerin' on a joy trip up the Labrador coast. No. That's t

l get it i

perturbed. Bat watched him closely. Th

You can't beat a feller like Hellbeam all the time and leave him without a kick. It don't need me to tell you that. But I want to get a square eye

that Persian Oil gamble to suit yourself, and forgot to figger that Hellbeam was at the other end of it. No. The other feller don't cut any ice with you while you're playing around with figgers. It's only afterwards you find that figgers ain't the whole game, and wrostling ten million dollars out of one of the biggest railroad kings and bank presidents in

perators on Wall Street. You were both playing the financial game as all the world knows it. You beat him

I want you to know it when I'm telling you the things in my mind. Hellbeam's got a mighty big kick coming. It's the biggest kick any feller of his sort can have. He's the money power of Sweden. He's one of the big money powers of the States. He lives for money and the power it hands him. Well? This is how I figger. Just how you played him up I can't say. But it's his job to juggle around with figgers same as it's yours, and if you beat him out of ten million dollars you must have played a slicker hand than him. All of which says you must have got more to windward of the law than him-and he knows it. Why, it's easy.

t almost seemed that the emotions stirring in his broad bosom were too overpowering for him, and he needed respite from

told us plain we got to fight. We got to fight like hell. And the time's right now. Oh, yes, we're going to fight. You an' me, just the same as we've fought a heap of times before. There ain't a feller I know who's

ow

ance in it. The tolerance of a temperament given to philosophy rather than passion. Perhaps it was a mask. Pe

boy's born,

A

ion. It was the nervous clenching at a sound that threate

hand you that boy child you reckon Providence is going to se

ous strides. His voice came back to the man at the table, while his eyes gazed down upon the waters of Farewell Cove, over the wid

f iron guts. Maybe I never shall be. It's hell to me to feel a shadow dogging my every step. Yes, you're right. It's been a nightmare, and now-why, now it's real.

how I fi

eyes for the moment, and his att

or. And I found it in Hellbeam, and the Persian Oils it was his hobby to manipulate. I jumped in and grabbed it with both hands. And, as you say, I beat him at his own game. But that was only part of my dream. The next part you also know, though you choose to think it was only as a refuge from Hellbeam that I came here to Sachigo. I admit circumstances have modified my original dream, but then I dreamed my fir

uch. All I learned at that time told me there was only one country in the world that was due to hold the world's paper industry, and that country was yours-Canada. The illimitable forests of the country are one of the most amazing features of it. The water power-yes, and even the climate. But I saw all Skandinavia's advantage. Hitherto they've had a complete monopoly. Geographically they were in the thick of the world. The whole darn thing was in their lap. But they have a weakness which you could never find in this country. Their forests are being eaten into. Their lumber is receding farther and farther from their mills. Their labour is difficult. Well, I set to work with a map and those figures which you guess are my str

. He nodded his head at the narrow

. Hellbeam is the circumstance. You say we are the gophers hunting our holes. Maybe you're right. Anyway Hellbeam's

r the excitement burning in his dark eyes. He thrust out a hand, a de

that dear woman who's given herself to me with the full knowledge of the threat hanging over my future. She and I have dreamed a fresh dream. And she's even now fulfilling her part of that dream. Yes, you're right. I'm going to fight for our dream with every ounce that's in me. I know my failings. I'm at heart a coward. Bu

e had long since given up attempting to fathom. He was a rough lumberman, a mill-boss, who, by sheer force, had raised himself from the dregs of a lumber camp to a position where his

the interior of Quebec, away down south of Sachigo, he had fought one of those sudden battles with a lumber-jack which seem to spring up without any apparent reason. And in the desperateness of it, in the fierce height to which his battling temper had arisen, he had killed his man. Even so, these things were sufficiently common for little notice of the matter

hout question. He told Bat that if he cared to get away he had the means awaiting him outside. And the prisoner who had visions of hanging, or at best, a long term of imprisonment, snatched at the helping hand held out. And Leslie Sta

sought information. But little enough had been forthcomin

calmly. "Just money.

oo. Even after seven years of intimate relations, Bat wa

urpose, he sat at the table groping helplessly. Suppose-suppose that faith were to be shattered.

ame back t

n't worry a thing. If Hellbeam's dogs get around, well-we're here first. All I

in direct contact with the owner of the Sachigo mill. He was one-third nigger, another French Canad

e headland, Boss," the man said without preamble, p

ently as he came, and the door

ss at Bat. He had not ev

smiling excitement. Then he shook his head. "No. I w

the smile fell from his eyes. When he looked up it was

cried, with a sha

for U.G.P. S

no

Peninsular Railroad. That

ard. The packet Lizzie is due at

astepaper basket beside him. Only was his emotion displayed in the deliber