ifty shares; Mr. Farley and his son together own four hundred and
fifty; and the remaining two hundred are held in trust for Miss Ardea
Dabney, to become her property in fee simple when she marries. Pending
her marriage, which is currently supposed to be near at hand, the voting
power of these two hundred shares resides in Miss Dabney's grandfather,
_and my father holds his proxy_."

This was the thunderbolt Tom had been forging during those quiet days
spent on the mountain side; and there was another pause while one might
count ten. After which the man from New York spoke his mind freely.

"Your row with these people must be pretty bitter, Mr. Gordon. Are you
willing to see your father and these Dabneys go by the board for the
sake of breaking the president and his son?"

"I know what I am doing," was the quiet reply. "Neither my father nor
Miss Dabney will lose anything that is worth keeping."

"Have you figured that out, too? The field is too small for you down
here, Mr. Gordon--much too small. You should come to New York."

Tom rose and took his hat.

"You will fight us?" he asked.

The short-circuiter of corporations laughed.

"We'll put you out of business, if you insist on it. Anything to oblige.
Better light a fresh cigar before you go."

Tom helped himself from the box on the table.

"You have it to do, Mr. Dracott. On the day you have hammered Chiawassee
Limited down to a dead proposition, you can have my pipe patents at the
figure named. If you will meet me at the office of Hanchett, Goodloe and
Tryson to-morrow morning at ten o'clock, we will put it in writing. Good
night."

XXXIV

THE SMOKE OF THE FURNACE

Hoping always for the best, after the manner prescribed for optimistic
gentlemen who successfully exploit their fellows, Mr. Duxbury Farley did
not deem it necessary to confide fully in his son when the
representative of American Aqueduct broke off negotiations abruptly and
went back to New York.

It is a sad state of affairs, reached by respectably villainous fathers
the world over, when the son demonstrates the mathematical law of
progression by becoming a villain without regard for the
respectabilities. Mr. Farley saw the growing outlaw in his son, was not
a little disturbed thereby, and was beginning to crouch when it menaced.

Hence, when the comfortable arrangement with the pipe trust threatened
to miscarry, all he did was to urge Vincent to hasten the day when Miss
Dabney