more judicial with every fresh questioning. "Let
me be quite sure that I understand. You mean that you are allowed to
charge the railroad company more than the market price on the material
it buys?"

Hathaway nodded. "Yes, that's the way of it."

"And this preferential rate is still in force?"

"It is."

"You're sure you have had no notice of its withdrawal--say within the
past few weeks?"

It was at this point that the lumber lord began to fear that some one
had slipped a cog in sending him to first one and then another, and
finally to young Blount.

"Of course, it hasn't been withdrawn!" he retorted. And then: "You seem
to think there is something off color in the deal, Mr. Blount, and I
don't know whether you're stringing me or whether you're too new in the
railroad game to have the dope. If you're going into this political
knock-down-and-drag-out, you ought to have the dope. There isn't a big
interest in this State--ore-shippers, power people, irrigation
companies, or any of 'em--that ain't getting a rake-off. I guess you
_are_ stringing me; I guess you know all this a good deal better than I
do. If you don't, I can tell you that it's a fact; not a 'has-been', but
an 'is'! Ask Gantry; he'll tell you, if he tells the truth. We ain't
asking or getting anything that other people ain't getting!"

"I see," said Blount soberly. "What do you expect me to do, Mr.
Hathaway?"

"I want you to set the wheels in motion so that we can have our rate
made good for another two years--on the same terms as before. You're
going to need every vote you can get this year, and you can't afford to
turn us down." Then the lumber-king shifted again to his own
necessities. "It's the only way we can live and do business nowadays.
Like every other large corporation, we've got an army of little
investors to look out for: widows, orphans, charitable institutions, and
trustees' accounts. I've got a list of our stockholders right here, and
I'd like to have you look it over."

Blount took the paper mechanically, and quite as mechanically ran his
eye down the list of names. At the bottom of it, written in with a pen,
was the name of Patricia's father, with his residence and occupation.
While he was staring at the pen-written name, Hathaway went on,
eloquently emphasizing the disastrous results which would fall upon the
people for whom he was, in the larger sense, a guardian and a
trustee--the disaster hinging upon the withdrawal of the pr