annulled by making
North the first vice-president with still higher authority. With a firm
ally in the president, and a legion of others in the MacMorroghs' camps,
North could discredit the best engineering corps that ever took the
field; and he was doing it--successfully, as Ford had reason to know.

More than once Ford had been on the point of leaving his plow in the
furrow while he should go to New York for one more battle with the
directory--a battle which should definitely abolish North and Mr.
Colbrith--or himself. Again and again he had weighed the chances of
winning such a battle. With Brewster for a leader it might be done. The
time for the annual stock-holders' meeting was approaching, and an
election which should put the burly copper magnate into the presidency
would be an unmixed blessing, not only for a struggling young chief of
construction, but for the Pacific Southwestern stock-holders, who were
sure to pay in the end for the present policy of rule or ruin.

Part of the time it seemed to Ford that it was clearly his duty to make
this fight against the grafters in the Denver management. North deserved
no consideration, and while Mr. Colbrith was honest enough, his blind
prejudice and narrow mentality made him North's unwitting accessory.
Three months earlier Ford would not have hesitated; but in the interval
a woman had come between to obscure all the points of view. A fight to
the death against the Colbrith administration meant the antagonizing of
the Adairs--of Alicia, at least. True, she had spoken lightly of her
uncle's peculiarities; but Ford made sure she would stand by him in the
conflict, if only for kinship's sake.

All this he was turning over in his mind for the hundredth time while
the big 1012 hammered up the Plug Mountain grade under the guiding hand
of the giant in blue denim. Ford, glooming out upon the lighted stretch
ahead, was once more finding the crucial question answerless. Should he
draw out of the losing battle with North and his fellow grafters, and
thereby save his chance of winning Alicia Adair? Or should he sacrifice
his love upon the altar of ambition, abolish Mr. Colbrith and the crew
of buccaneers his mistaken policy was sheltering, and win the industrial
success and a quieted conscience?

His decision was reached by the time Hector was easing the throttle
lever at the summit of Plug Pass. What must be done should be done
quickly.

"Right here is where you begin to run