and truck carried across?"

"Fifteen dollars for the duffel, and four dollars each for the guide,
myself and you."

"How's that for a tariff?" laughed the president. Then he took out his
pencil and book and put a series of interrogations to Rowe. At the close
he pondered a while, and said to Jerrard:

"According to our friend here, at least five thousand men cross
that carry each year, making ten thousand through fares one way.
Supplies--pressed hay, grain, foodstuffs and all that sort of
freight--from ten to fifteen thousand tons. Then there's the sportsman
traffic, which could be built up indefinitely if there were suitable
transportation conveniences here. Say, Jerrard, do you know there's a
fine place for a six-mile narrow-gage railroad right there on
Poquette Carry? You and I didn't come down here looking up railroad
possibilities, but really this thing strikes me favorably. Slow time and
not very expensive equipment, but think what a convenience! It will
also give you and me an excuse to come down here summers, eh?" he added,
humorously.

"We'll establish a colony here on Kennemagon," suggested Jerrard, half
in jest, "and start a land boom."

"Seriously," went on Whittaker "the more I talk about that little road
the more I am convinced it would pay a very good dividend. You and I
can swing it. We can use some P. K. & R. rails, fix up one of those
narrow-gage shifters they used on the grain spur, and have a railroad
while you wait. If we only clear enough to pay our own passage twice a
year we'll be doing fairly well. And I'll be willing to pass dividends
for the sake of riding from Spinnaker to the West Branch on a car-seat
instead of a buckboard. Say, Rowe," he went on, jocosely, "I suppose
they'll have a mass-meeting and pass votes of thanks to Jerrard and
myself if we put that project through, won't they?"

Rowe squinted his eye along the sliver he was whittling. "I don't know
of any one specially that's hankering for railroad-lines round here,"
said he.

"You don't mean to tell me that abomination of stones and muck-holes
suits the public, do you?"

"I know the folks I work for don't want to have it a mite smoother than
it is. They're the public that's running this part of the world."

"Here's a brand-new thing in transportation ideas, Jerrard!" cried the
president of the P. K. &R.

"Nothing strange about our side of it," said the prospector. "The people
I work for own more than a million acres o