dragon's teeth.

That wondrous clear and fresh summer morning of June the seventh will
not be forgotten for many years. The trees were in their early leaf
in Ripton Square, and the dark pine patches on Sawanec looked (from
Austen's little office) like cloud shadows against the shimmer of the
tender green. He sat at his table, which was covered with open law-books
and papers, but his eyes were on the distant mountain, and every
scent-laden breeze wafted in at his open window seemed the bearer of
a tremulous, wistful, yet imperious message--"Come!" Throughout the
changing seasons Sawanec called to him in words of love: sometimes her
face was hidden by cloud and fog and yet he heard her voice! Sometimes
her perfume as to-day--made him dream; sometimes, when the western
heavens were flooded with the golden light of the infinite, she veiled
herself in magic purple, when to gaze at her was an exquisite agony,
and she became as one forbidden to man. Though his soul cried out to her
across the spaces, she was not for him. She was not for him!

With a sigh he turned to his law-books again, and sat for a while
staring steadfastly at a section of the 'Act of Consolidation of the
Northeastern Railroads' which he had stumbled on that morning. The
section, if he read its meaning aright, was fraught with the gravest
consequences for the Northeastern Railroads; if he read its meaning
aright, the Northeastern Railroads had been violating it persistently
for many years and were liable for unknown sums in damages. The
discovery of it had dazed him, and the consequences resulting from a
successful suit under the section would be so great that he had searched
diligently, though in vain, for some modification of it since its
enactment. Why had not some one discovered it before? This query
appeared to be unanswerable, until the simple--though none the less
remarkable--solution came to him, that perhaps no definite occasion had
hitherto arisen for seeking it. Undoubtedly the Railroads' attorneys
must know of its existence--his own father, Hilary Vane, having been
instrumental in drawing up the Act. And a long period had elapsed under
which the Northeastern Railroads had been a law unto themselves.

The discovery was of grave import to Austen. A month before, chiefly
through the efforts of his friend, Tom, who was gradually taking his
father's place in the Gaylord Lumber Company, Austen had been appointed
junior counsel for that corporation