Regardin' me makin' an error.
Yass.... I don't calc'late to make errors costin' upward of a hunderd
thousand. No.... Not," he said, "that I got any doubts about the word
'westerly' appearin' in all the papers McKettrick's got regardin' this
enterprise. What I doubt some is whether the word 'westerly' was there
right from the start off of the beginnin'. In other words, it looks to
me kind of as if McKettrick had done a mite of fixin' up to them
documents. Rubbin' out and writin' in, so to speak."

"Fiddlesticks!" said McKettrick. "Of course that is what you would
charge."

"McKettrick," said Scattergood, "did you figger I'd take notes in lead
pencil on my cuff of where I was to build that railroad? Did you figger
I was goin' to lay down a railroad without knowin' the place I put it
was where it b'longed? Castle he knows me better 'n you, and he
wouldn't guess I'd do sich a thing. No, sir, Mr. McKettrick. I took
them original papers out of your office for jest a day, and bein' as
they constituted an easement on land, I got 'em recorded in the office
of the recorder of deeds. Paid reg'lar money in fees to have it done.
And who you think I got to compare the records with the original in case
somethin' come up, eh? Why, the circuit jedge of this county and the
prosecutin' attorney--they both bein' personal and political friends of
mine.... That's what I done, and if you'll search them records you'll
find the word 'easterly' standin' cool and ca'm in every place where it
ought to be.... So, if you're figgerin' on litigation, I guess maybe
we'll litigate, eh?"

"These are the references to the records," said Johnnie Bones, laying a
memorandum on the table. "You'll find them correct."

"Knowing Baines as I do," said President Castle, "I'm satisfied."

McKettrick and his attorney were conversing in hoarse whispers.
McKettrick looked like a man who had come out of a warm bath into a
cold-storage room. He was speechless, but his lawyer spoke for him.

"You win," he said, succinctly.

"Always calc'late to when I kin," said Scattergood. "Now, don't hurry,
gentlemen. I got another leetle matter to call to your attention.
McKettrick there's got forty-nine per cent of the stock in the railroad
that's built where it ought to be, and Castle's got another forty-nine
per cent. That leaves two men with all but two per cent of the stock,
and neither of them in control. If I know them men they hain't apt to
git together and agree pea