The fire was a thing of the past. Jeffrey
Whiting had been put out of the way--definitely, the railroad had
hoped. He was now free again to make difficulties. All these things
were but changes and moves and temporary checks in the carrying
through of the business. In the end the railroad must attain its end.

Jeffrey Whiting saw all these things as he sat his horse on the old
Piercefield road and listened to what had been happening in the hills
during the four weeks of his removal from the scene.

The fire, because it had seemed the end of all things to the people of
the hills, had put out of their minds all thought of what the railroad
would do next. Now they were realising that the railroad had moved
right on about its purpose in the wake of the fire. It had learned
instantly of Rogers' death and had instantly set to work to use that
as a means of removing Jeffrey Whiting from its path. But that was
only a side line of activity. It had gone right on with its main
business. Other men had been sent at once into the hills with what
seemed like liberal offers for six-month options on all the lands
which the railroad coveted.

They had gotten hold of discouraged families who had not yet begun to
rebuild. The offer of any little money was welcome to these. The whole
people were disorganised and demoralised as a result of the scattering
which the fire had forced upon them. They were not sure that it was
worth while to rebuild in the hills. The fire had burned through the
thin soil in many places so that the land would be useless for farming
for many years to come. They had no leader, and the fact that Jeffrey
Whiting was in jail charged with murder, and, as they heard, likely to
be convicted, forced upon them the feeling that the railroad would win
in the end. Where was the use to struggle against an enemy they could
not see and who could not be hurt by anything they might do?

Jeffrey Whiting saw that the fight which had gone before, to keep the
people in line and prevent them from signing enough options to suit
the railroad's purpose, had been easy in comparison with the one that
was now before him. The people were disheartened. They had begun to
fear the mysterious, unassailable power of the railroad. It was an
enemy of a kind to which their lives and training had not accustomed
them. It struck in the dark, and no man's hand could be raised to
punish. It hid itself behind an illusive veil of law and a bulwark of
offic