"Are you still willing to trade your cargo for our pack ?" "I might be, and then again I mightn't," answered the Yankee, as he meditatively chewed a blade of grass.

"You see, the risk of the thing has been so increased during the past two days that I couldn't make nigh so good an offer now as I could at first.

Also, here's so many claiming the pack of this factory that I'm in considerable doubt as to who is the rightful owner.

First there's the Baldwin interest and the American interest, represented by you two chaps.

Then there's the St.
Johns interest, represented by that travelling man; the British interest, which is a mighty powerful one, seeing that it is supported by the English navy; the French government interest, which is likewise backed up by a fleet of warships, and the French factory interest, represented by our friend in limbo, who, though he isn't saying much just now, seems to have a pretty strong political pull.