d for west-bound transcontinental business. It's as simple as
twice two. Our competitors catch us going and coming."

"Precisely. And if we don't get relief?"

The auditor smiled grimly.

"As I've said, you're one of us, Ford, and I don't mind speaking freely
to you. A receivership is looming in the distance, and the not very dim
distance, for the P. S-W."

"I thought so. How near is it?"

"I don't know--nobody knows definitely. If we had a man of resources at
the head of things--as we have not--it might be stood off for another
six months."

"I'm on the way to stand it off permanently, if I can get any backing,"
said Ford quietly.

"You!" was the astonished reply.

"Yes, I. Listen, Evans. For two years I have been buried up yonder in
the hills, with not enough to do in the summer season to keep me out of
mischief. I am rather fond of mathematics, and I am telling you I have
this thing figured out to the fourth decimal. If President Colbrith and
his associates can be made to see that the multiplication of two by two
gives an invariable resultant of four, there will be no receivership for
the P. S-W. this year, or next."

"Show me," said the auditor.

Ford hesitated for a moment. Then he took a packet of papers, estimates,
exhibits and fine-lined engineer's maps from his pocket and tossed it
across the table.

"That is for you, personally--for David Evans; not the P. S-W. auditor.
You've got to keep it to yourself."

The auditor went through the papers carefully, shifting his cigar slowly
from one corner of his mouth to the other as he read and examined. When
he handed them back he was shaking his head, almost mournfully.

"It's a big thing, Ford; the biggest kind of a thing. And it is
beautifully worked out. But I know our people, here and in New York.
They will simply give you the cold stare and say that you are crazy."

"Because it can't be financed?"

"Because it doesn't come from Hill or Harriman or Morgan, or some other
one of the big captains. You'll never be able to stand it upon its feet
by your single-handed lonesome."

Ford set his teeth, and his clean-cut face seemed to grow suddenly older
and harder as the man in him came to the fore.

"By heavens! if I put my back under it, it's got to stand upon its feet!
I'm not going into it with the idea that there is any such thing in the
book as failure."

The auditor looked darkly into the cool gray eyes of the man facing him.

"Then let me g