The Rapids

  III.--PHILADELPHIA HEARS ABOUT ARCADIA

  Follow Clark a little further, for he was making history. He did notthink of this but had merely set a determined face toward his guidingstar. The vision was still clear and sharp when he reachedPhiladelphia, reinspired by a series of swift calculations that were asswiftly stowed away for suitable use in his retentive brain. Therewere also three names--Wimperley, Riggs, and Stoughton.

  The morning after he arrived he went to see the first of his prospects.Wimperley was the auditor of a great railway system, and when Clark'sname was brought in he looked up from his desk and announced shortly:"Busy, can't see him," which was really what Clark expected.

  Now the influence by which Clark forced and carried out this interviewwith Wimperley need not be succinctly described, nor the half amused,half resentful surrender with which Wimperley finally said, "Show himin," but it is indicative of that power of hypnosis which Clark couldexert at will, and by means of which, time and time again, he dissolvedantagonism into support and the murky solution of criticism into theclean precipitate of confident reassurance. Wimperley knew perfectlywell that, once admitted, Clark would convert him to his own presentbelief, whatever that might be, and that under Clark's magneticpersuasion he would shortly find himself treading a totally unexpectedpath.

  "Good morning. I'd like to have fifteen minutes." Clark was inwardlyamused, but he spoke with perfect gravity.

  Wimperley drew a long breath. He knew what could happen in fifteenminutes. "What's the scheme now?"

  "Power and pulp," said Clark briefly, and, turning to a large railwaymap on the wall laid a finger on the point where Lake Superior fallsinto Lake Huron.

  "Go ahead."

  "I have acquired the right to develop any desired quantity of energy.This can be done for eighty dollars a horsepower. The country to thenorth is full of pulp wood, but the people up there don't know it."

  Wimperley felt a throb of interest. The power question in Philadelphiawas up at the moment, but it was power developed from coal and it camehigh.

  "What else?" he said evenly, "and how do you know it?"

  "Seven different lumbermen have offered to contract for ten thousandcords a year. That's all I had time to talk to. The point is thateach has individual knowledge of good stands of timber in his ownlocality but the thing has never been collated. Now look here," wenton Clark, with a new light in his gray eyes--"there's power and wood;excellent transportation; iron ore--without question--in the hills;limestone at hand; cheap labor; no local competition, and--"

  "Wait a minute," struck in Wimperley hastily and pressed a bell.

  "Telephone Mr. Riggs and Mr. Stoughton and see if they can come overfor a moment," he said to his secretary, then, turning to Clark,"better wait for them."

  Silence fell in the office. Both men were thinking hard. Wimperley,beginning to be resigned, had, in a burst of revolt, visualized Riggsand Stoughton as those most likely to help with the barricade whichClark was already beginning to shatter, and Clark, his face asimperturbable as ever, marveled not at all at his own influence, butwas busy reviewing the strategic moves which were to convert the twofor whom he waited. Presently they entered, shook hands with a certainstiffness and sat down. A glance at Clark revealed the reason forWimperley's summons. They, too, had in former years come under thespell.

  "Now," said Wimperley briefly.

  Clark recapitulated, and the three listened, their faces devoid ofexpression save when their eyes involuntarily sought each other.

  The voice went on vibrant and compelling. "We can turn outseventy-five thousand tons of pulp a year at a profit of six dollars aton. There is an abundance of hard wood for veneer mills. I have fivehundred acres of land adjoining the power canal; it is crossed by theTranscontinental Railway; I have been to Ottawa and am promised a bonusof ten thousand dollars a mile for such railways as we may build. Thebalance of the cost will be met by the sale of lands thus developed,and thus the railways will not mean any permanent investment on ourpart, but we will, nevertheless, own them. I am also authorized todivert from the rapids any water I may require for power. I have beento see the Provincial Government and am promised exclusive control ofany mineral or lumber areas applied for. The market for pulp is verygood and will shortly be better owing to the exhaustion of areas whichhave been cut over too long. I have virgin country which ispractically inexhaustible. The town has transferred to me its entirerights and holdings. I have all the fundamentals for the making of agreat industrial center. As to the money--"

  "Yes," put in Riggs with a suggestion of breathlessness in his voice.

  "Philadelphia has millions waiting for investment--you know it, I knowit, and this is the opportunity. We will be dealing with naturalproducts in a simple and natural way. The district supplies the powerand the raw material; the outside and neighboring country, the market.We supply the brains."

  "What does this cost you personally?" hazarded Stoughton a littleuncertainly.

  "A hundred dollars in traveling expenses, and I have assumed a hundredand thirty thousand of town debentures at six per cent. If you don'twant it there are others who do."

  Wimperley looked up. His face had taken on a new expression. Hecaught Riggs' eye and his lips formed the word "cheap."

  The latter nodded. There was a slight flush in his otherwise sallowcheeks. Then he put a series of searching questions which wereanswered by Clark with a wealth of detailed information which it seemedwas impossible to have been collected by one man in the course of a fewdays. After which the three went to the big map and, turning theirbacks on Clark, traced out railway lines and steamship routes and thegeneral transportation situation, and all the while the latter satquite motionless, while his eyes regarded the group across the roomwith a look at once hypnotic and profound. These were telling moments,during which unseen forces seemed to move and stretch themselves inhidden potency.

  Presently came Wimperley's voice. "How much money would be necessaryfor the first year's operations?"

  "About a million, possibly more."

  "And how," demanded Stoughton, "do you propose to get it?"

  "I am not going to get it," replied Clark with extreme placidity; "youare."

  Came a joint laugh from the three at the map, not hearty or contagious,but burdened with that negative humor with which men sometimes accept asituation which holds them helpless and at the same time summons alltheir power to meet it.

  Stoughton drew a long breath. "Well," he said slowly; "I suppose weare."

  There followed an hour's conference. Clark did not display a trace oftriumph but poured out the contents of his extraordinary brain. Amillion to start with and after that more millions as the occasiondemanded. These were his requirements and the rest could be left tohim. And it might be noted that the prospect did not cause the othersmuch anxiety, for as the undertaking unfolded with communicable power,they perceived more fully than ever that he was in actuality dealingwith fundamentals, and fundamentals were things they were not afraid tocommend to financial circles. Thus was sown in this Philadelphiaoffice the seed which was destined to propagate itself so amazingly.

  When it was all over, Clark went back to his hotel, and wrote a shortletter to a woman saying that he had interesting business on hand andhoped to see her soon. The letter was to his mother.