t was announced
this morning as the lowest bidder."

"Nobody ever heard of it," asserted Ferris. "It was no doubt organized
for the sole purpose of bidding on this job. Probably when you delve
into the matter you will discover the fine Italian hand of your
political boss."

"Hardly," chuckled Uncle Dan, indulging in his recent propensity to
brag on Bobby. "Our local boss was Sam Stone, and Bobby has just
succeeded in running him and two of his expert wire workers out of the
country."

"If anybody here is the political boss it is Bobby," observed Agnes,
laughing.

"I'm sorry to have to suspect him," laughed Ferris. "Well, there is no
use crying over spilled milk; but I had hoped to bring Mrs. Ferris out
for a good long visit."

"Give your wife my regards, Mr. Ferris, and tell her she must come
anyhow," insisted Mrs. Elliston. "Since I have heard that you married
the daughter of my old schoolmate, I have been wanting the Keystone
Construction Company to have a big contract here more than you have, I
think."

"Sounds very nice, Constance," said her husband dryly, "but I doubt if
any woman ever wanted to see the daughter of her old schoolmate as
badly as any man ever wanted to make a million dollars. Bobby, I'll
make you a small bet. I'll bet your new construction company is
composed of the shattered fragments of the old Stone crowd. I'll even
bet that Silas Trimmer is in it."

"If he is," suddenly declared Agnes, "I'm going to go into the
detective business," whereat Uncle Dan enjoyed himself hugely. Her
vindictiveness whenever the name of Silas Trimmer was mentioned had
become highly amusing to him, in spite of the fact that he admired her
for it.

"Go right ahead," said Bobby approvingly. "If you find anything that
will enable me to give that gentleman a financial backset I'll see
that you get a handsome reward. In the meantime I'm going to find out
something about the Middle West Construction Company myself."

Accordingly he asked his managing editor about that concern the first
thing in the morning.

Ben Jolter lit his old pipe, folded his bare arms and patted them
alternately in speculative enjoyment.

"I have something like two pages of information about them, if we
could use it," he announced. "I have been getting reports from the
entire scouting brigade ever since the contract was let yesterday, and
you may now prepare for a shock. The largest stock-holders of the
concern are Silas Trimmer and Fran