I suppose she has; yes, she certainly has money. But that doesn't make
any difference--to her or to me."

"It is simply idyllic!" was the ecstatic comment. "After all this there
remains but one other possible contingency. Has she a willing mind, Mr.
Ford?"

They had reached the steps of the Nadia, and the others had gone within.
Ford looked soberly into the depths of the laughing eyes and said: "I
would give all my chances of success in this Pacific Southwestern affair
to be able to say 'yes' to that."

The station gong was clanging the departure signal for the New York
train, and he swung her lightly up to the step of the car.

"Good-by," she said, turning to smile down upon him. And then, "I don't
believe you, you know; not the least bit in the world."

"Why don't you?" he demanded.

"Because the woman doesn't live who would be worth such a sacrifice as
that would be--to Mr. Stuart Ford."

And this was her leave-taking.

X

THE SINEWS OF WAR

The general offices of the C. P. & D. Railway were crowded into a
half-dozen utilitarian rooms on the second floor of the company's
freight station building in the Chicago yards. In two of these rooms,
with a window outlook upon a tangle of switching tracks with their
shifting panorama of cars and locomotives, Ford set up his standard as
chief executive of the three "annexed" roads, becoming, in the eyes of
three separate republics of minor officials and employees, the arbiter
of destiny.

Naturally, the announcement that their railroads had been swallowed
whole by the Pacific Southwestern had fallen as a thunderclap upon the
rank and file of the three local companies; and since, in railway
practice, a change of owners usually carries with it a sweeping change
in department heads, the service was instantly demoralized.

During the first few hours of Ford's administration, therefore, the
wires were buzzing with hasty resignations; and those whose courage was
not whetted to the quitting point took a loose hold upon their duties
and waited to see what would happen. Under such chaotic conditions Ford
took his seat in the mean little office over the freight station, and
flung himself ardently into the task of bringing order out of the sudden
confusion. Effectively to support Adair and the reconstructionists on
the board it was critically necessary that there be immediate and
cheering news from the front.

It was in the preliminary wrestle with disintegration t