"Huh!... You'll handle the stuff, deliver it, and all that? What's your
proposition?"

"Well, havin' been in business twenty-odd year, I kin buy mighty
favorable. More so 'n you fellers. All I want's a livin' profit. Tell
you what I'll do. I'll take this here contract like this: Goods to be
delivered in your camps at actual cost of the stuff and freighting plus
ten per cent. We'll keep stock on hand in depots, and deliver as needed.
It'll save you all the trouble of handlin'. We'll carry the stock, and
you pay once a month for what's delivered."

Crane called in Keith, and they discussed the proposition. It presented
distinct advantages; might, indeed, save them money in addition to
trouble. Bailey clinched the thing by showing an agreement with the
stage line to transport the provisions at a price per hundred pounds
notably lower than Crane and Keith imagined could be obtained, and went
home carrying the contract Scattergood had sent him to get.

Scattergood put the paper away in his safe and sat back in his
reinforced armchair, with placid satisfaction making benignant his face.
"I calc'late," he said to himself, "that this here dicker'll keep Crane
and Keith gropin' and wonderin' and scrutinizin' more or less--when it
gits to their ears. Shouldn't be s'prised if it come to worry 'em a
mite."

So, having created a diversion to conceal the movements of his main
attack, Scattergood got out his maps and began scientifically to plan
his fall and winter campaign.