ot had told. There
was no great liking for commerce in any of those who heard him. They were
sportsmen first of all, and they loved the open. Even had the thing been
probable none of them would have wished to see Carrington defiled by the
smoke of mills and factories. It seemed to me that the Colonel might have
bent them to his will had he made some trifling concession or been willing
to discuss the matter quietly. Most of them, I felt, would gladly have met
him half-way. Still that was never a habit of Colonel Carrington's. He was
an autocrat all through, and when he desired anything done he simply
commanded it. In a moment or two Lyle answered him.

"No sir," he said. "At least, not exactly, though Lancashire clothes half
the people in the world with her cotton, and the roads that have opened up
this continent are laid with Pennsylvania steel. Still, as we haven't iron
or coal here there's very little probability of our doing what you seem
afraid of with Carrington. We believe that the enterprise will prove a
general benefit. We merely want good wagon roads, a creamery, and a few
other similar things, and we respectfully ask you not to veto them."

"I can't meet you," said Carrington. "As I said, my suggestion is that
this preposterous scheme be abandoned forthwith."

There was for a few moments a silence which seemed intensified by the soft
rustle of the curtains as the breeze from the prairie flowed into the
room. Then one of the men who had spoken in favor of the creamery rose and
looked hard at Lyle who made a little sign.

"Then as a matter of form and to take a vote I second that," he said.

The others were very still, but I saw Carrington gaze at the speaker
almost incredulously. Though, as one of them told me afterward, a vote had
once before been asked for, it had only established their leader's
authority more firmly, and I think this was the first time that any
determined opposition had been offered to his will.

"You mean to take a vote?" he asked.

"Yes sir," said another man, and there was a little murmur of concurrence.
"I'm afraid there is no other course left open to us."

Again the Colonel stared at them incredulously, and it seemed to me that
there was something almost pathetic about the old man's position. Grim and
overbearing as he was, he stood alone, and for the first time I think he
to some extent realized it. Still, it was evident that he could not bring
himself to believe that they woul