Now this looked difficult.

Money was scarce, and he found credit strangely hard to get.

The mining speculators he called upon received him coldly, and although he had a warmer welcome from the manufacturers of giant-powder and rock-boring machines, they demanded prompt payment for their goods.
When Thirlwell stated that this was impossible they told him to come again.
It was known that there was silver in the rocks that run back into the North-West Territories, but nobody had found ore that would pay for refining.

The rich strike in Ontario had not been made yet, and the prospectors who pushed into the forests with drill and dynamite were regarded as rash enthusiasts.

Bankers were cautious, and declined to accept rusty mining plant and a shaft in the wilderness as good security.
On the evening before he left Montreal, Thirlwell sat in the hall of his hotel, listening to the clanging street-cars and the rattle of the Grand Trunk trains.