on't care a damn for the G.&M. I want the cribbing."

"Don't you worry. I'll have the law on those fellows--"

"And I'd get the stuff about five years from now, when I was likely enough
dead."

"What's the best way to get it, according to your idea?"

"Take it over to Manistogee in wagons and then down by barges."

Sloan snorted. "You'd stand a chance to get some of it by Fourth of July
that way."

"Do you want to bet on that proposition?"

Sloan made no reply. He had allowed his wrath to boil for a few minutes
merely as a luxury. Now he was thinking seriously of the scheme. "It
sounds like moonshine," he said at last, "but I don't know as it is. How
are you going to get your barges?"

"I've got one already. It leaves Milwaukee tonight."

Sloan looked him over. "I wish you were out of a job," he said. Then
abruptly he went on: "Where are your wagons coming from? You haven't got
them all lined up in the yard now, have you? It'll take a lot of them."

"I know it. Well, we'll get all there are in Ledyard. There's a beginning.
And the farmers round here ain't so very fond of the G.&M., are they?
Don't they think the railroad discriminates against them--and ain't they
right about it? I never saw a farmer yet that wouldn't grab a chance to
get even with a railroad."

"That's about right, in this part of the country, anyway."

"You get up a regular circus poster saying what you think of the G.&M.,
and call on the farmers to hitch up and drive to your lumber yard. We'll
stick that up at every crossroads between here and Manistogee."

Sloan was scribbling on a memorandum pad before Bannon had finished
speaking. He made a false start or two, but presently got something that
seemed to please him. He rang for his office boy, and told him to take it
to the Eagle office.

"It's got to be done in an hour," said Bannon. "That's when the procession
moves," he added, as Sloan looked at him questioningly.

The other nodded. "In an hour," he said to the office boy. "What are you
going to do in an hour?" he asked, as the boy went out.

"Why, it'll be four o'clock then, and we ought to start for Manistogee as
early as we can."

"We! Well, I should think not!" said Sloan.

"You're going to drive me over with that fast mare of yours, aren't you?"

Sloan laughed. "Look at it rain out there."

"Best thing in the world for a sand road," said Bannon. "And we'll wash, I
guess. Both been wet before."

"But it's twenty-five m