hen the young man marked the new-comer's entrance, the
small hand-bag in which the amateur promoter carried his papers, and got
up to shake hands, Ford found the suggestive gropings baffled.

"My name is Adair," said the lounger genially; "and I suppose you are
the Mr. Ford Uncle Sidney has been telling us about. Pull up a chair and
sit by the window. It's the only amusement you'll have until the clan
gathers."

Ford looked at his watch.

"I seem to be ahead of time," he remarked. "I understood Mr. Colbrith to
say that the meeting would be called for ten o'clock."

"Oh, that's all right; and so he did," rejoined the other cheerfully.
"But that means anything up to noon for a directors' meeting in New
York." Then, after a pause: "Do you know any of us personally, Mr.
Ford?"

Ford was rummaging in his memory again. "I ought to know you, Mr.
Adair. It isn't very decent to drag in resemblances, but--"

"The resemblance is the real thing, this time," said Adair. "You saw me
day before yesterday, driving out of the Overlook grounds as you were
going in."

Ford shook his head.

"No; it goes back of that; sometime I'll remember how and where. But to
answer your question: I know Mr. Colbrith slightly, but I've never met
any of the directors."

"Well, you are meeting one at this moment," laughed the young man,
crossing his legs comfortably. "But I am the easiest mark of the lot,"
he added. "I inherited my holdings in Pacific Southwestern."

Ford was crucially anxious to find out how the battle was likely to go,
and his companion seemed amiably communicative.

"Since you call Mr. Colbrith 'Uncle Sidney,' I infer that you know what
I am here for, Mr. Adair. How do you think my proposition is likely to
strike the board?"

Again the young man laughed.

"Fancy your asking me!" he said. "I haven't talked with any one but
Uncle Sidney; and the most I could get out of him was that you wanted
thirty-five million dollars to spend."

"Well," said the Westerner anxiously, "am I going to get it?"

"You can search me," was the good-natured rejoinder. "But from my
knowledge of the men you are going presently to wrestle with, I should
say 'no' and italicize it."

"Perhaps it might help me a little if I could know in advance the
particular reason for the italics," Ford suggested.

"Oh, sure. The principal reason is that your name isn't Hill or Harriman
or Morgan or Gates. Money is ridiculously sheepish. It will follow a
kno