edraggled, indecent procession, lost
to everything except utter weariness and a spirit of cold revenge. In
Stoughton's heavy heart was the thought that Clark had unexpectedly
made their job vastly easier than they anticipated. The latter was on
a little knoll that rose roundly from the encircling bush. He seemed
cool and comfortable, and this stirred them to deeper anger. His
features were expressionless, save that his lips twitched ever so
slightly. The Philadelphians dropped and lay limply, and there was
silence for perhaps five minutes when Birch lifted a haggard face and
spoke.

"Look here, Clark, I don't know the reason for this fool expedition,
none of us do, but it serves well enough to lead up to the point of
other fool expeditions on a larger scale."

"Yes?" said Clark with a lift in his voice.

"It does. Now I'd like to go back about four years when you said that
three millions would do you. In between now and then is a long story
and I haven't got breath to tell it, but to-day you've had seven and
we're deeper in the woods than ever we were."

"Go ahead, I'm following you."

"The long and the short of it is that we've had enough."

"Of me?" The voice was very quiet.

"Yes, damn it, of you; that is, in your present position of general
manager. You can have one or two of the subsidiary companies but not
the whole darn thing, and--"

"The point is," cut in Wimperley, "that we're afraid of you. We've not
paid a dividend and, as things go, there's not any likelihood that we
ever will. It's not easy to talk like this, and don't think we
under-estimate what you've done. No other man I know of could have
done it, but there's a limit to the money available in the State of
Pennsylvania for this business--and we've reached it--that's all."

"And if you want to know what's upset the apple-cart," chirped Riggs
with a little shiver--for they were all taking turns by now--"it's that
fool proposal to build a railway through this ungodly wilderness." The
little man glanced about him with visible abhorrence.

"And a blast furnace without any ore," concluded Stoughton heavily.

Clark's eyes wandered round the group while through his whole body ran
a divine thrill. He had very swiftly interpreted the purpose of this
official visit. The directors wanted to get rid of him but funked the
job, and now he experienced a certain contempt for their helplessness.
He had a vivid sense of the dramatic and this t