e he took hold in earnest.

"He's in his twenties, as near as I can make out, but he's come through
on one of two jobs that might well make an old campaigner envious. He
took a fortune in hard woods out of San Domingo for a Berlin concern;
he was the only man on the St. Sebastian River job who said the
construction was too light. He said it wouldn't stand when the ice
began to move in the spring--and it didn't! Oh, he knows his business!
But it wasn't his successes which caught Elliott's eye. It's the way
he has failed a couple of times, fighting right back to the last
ditch--and fighting and fighting!--when all the rest had quit, that
made me anxious to get a look at him. Perhaps there are older men who
can outfigure him on loads and stresses, but as a field general he
stands alone. He can handle men. And, when it comes to meeting
conditions just as they arise, Elliott says he's a wonder--he can
outguess dear old Mother Nature herself!"

There was grave appreciation in Allison's voice--honest appreciation of
a man who had himself achieved, for another man's achievement. And yet
Caleb, in spite of the proud pumping of his heart, in spite of his
desire to murmur, "But I told you so, Dexter, years ago," still found
room to wonder at a thin strain of speculation which seemed to underrun
the speaker's words. In his reiteration of O'Mara's qualities Allison
seemed almost to be assuring himself that infallibility was not a human
attribute. And his next remark only served to heighten that suggestion.

"That's why the East Coast Co. brought him up here to build their bit
of road," he went on slowly. "They've got to move that Reserve Company
timber. They have a contract that'll break 'em--break us--if we fall
down. And do you know, Cal, I--I can't help but believe that the thing
is beyond the pale of possibility. I believed it six months ago, when
Elliott and Ainnesley and the rest of them were so keen for it, and I
believe it still, even though I have seen Elliott's engineer and know
what he has already accomplished. That track'll never go through on
schedule--and that's why I'm up here for the winter. It's going to be
a hot little race against time, with some millions for a purse. It'll
break the East Coast Co. if he fails, and"--his voice became oddly
intense--"and I tell you again that it--can't--be--done!"

Then Allison became aware of Caleb's mild astonishment at his vehemence.

"An amateur's opinion,