llionaire gave his companion the story of
the fight in the directory.

"We have Brewster to thank for the lift which finally pulled our wheel
out of the mud," said the young man, modestly effacing himself in the
summing up. "Or rather I should say that we have the enemy to thank for
stirring Brewster into action. Brewster's got some copper mines out in
Utah that he nurses like a sick child. Just at the critical moment some
of the people who control the Transcontinental began to worry his copper
stock. In the hot part of it he came to me and said, 'Adair, will that
western extension of yours be able to fry any fat out of
Transcontinental?' I told him it would, most assuredly; that next to
making money for ourselves, and, incidentally, saving the Pacific
Southwestern from going smash, our chief object was to give the
Transcontinental a wholesome drubbing."

"You are progressing rapidly," said Ford, with a grin of appreciation.
"Did that fetch him?"

"It did, for a fact. He looked like one of those old bushy-bearded
vikings when he said, 'By thunder, I'm with you, young man! And I'll
answer for Scott and Magnus and Harding. Get your board together, and
we'll settle it to-day."

Ford looked up quickly. "If Mr. Colbrith wasn't the chief of your family
clan, Adair, I could wish that we had this Mr. Brewster at the head of
things."

The rejoinder was heartily prompt. "You don't wish it any more fervently
than I do, Ford. That is why I am here to-day. The board, in spite of
all that our handful of revolutionaries could do, has armed Uncle Sidney
with almost dictatorial powers in this stock-purchasing deal; and if he
doesn't contrive to strangle things by the slow process, it will be
simply and solely because you and Kenneth and I are here to see that he
does not. Do you know what the men call him out on the main line? When
they see the Nadia trundling in, they say, 'Here comes old Automatic
Air-Brakes.' And it fits him."

"But I don't quite understand why he should want to put the brakes on
here and now," Ford interposed. "I know he is against the scheme,
personally; but he is here as the representative of a majority which has
committed itself to the expansion measure, isn't he?"

"Oh, yes; and he has no thought of playing the traitor--you mustn't
think that of him. But it isn't in his nature to facilitate things. In
the present crisis he will feel that he is personally responsible for
the expenditure of five million d