long battle which ends finally in
unqualified loss, the heavens are as brass, and the future is apt to
reflect only the pale light of the past failure.

It was after the train had entered the suburbs of Chicago that a
blue-coated messenger boy came through the Pullman, with the car
conductor for his guide. Ford saw himself pointed out, and a moment
later was reading a telegram, with a tumult, not of the drumming car
wheels, roaring in his ears.

Had a talk with my sister and made up my mind to see you
through--if I don't get tired and quit, as usual. Secure
options on that short-road stock quick, and wire me care McV. & M.
Funds to your credit in Algonquin National, Chicago. Another
directors' meeting to-day, and things look a little less chaotic.
Answer. ADAIR.

For some time Ford could only read and re-read the exciting telegram,
scarcely trusting the evidence of his senses. That the coldly
indifferent members of the P. S-W. board, with a man like President
Colbrith at their head, could be swung into line in the short space of a
single day by a young fellow who seemed to be little more than a spoiled
son of fortune, was blankly incredible.

But he was not long in realizing that the cherished scheme for which he
had studied and struggled was actually beginning to stagger to its feet;
or in reaching the equally stirring conclusion that his part in the
suddenly reopened game called instantly for shrewd blows and the
swiftest possible action.

The stock-holders in the three local roads which were to be united to
bridge the Chicago-Missouri River gap were scattered all over the Middle
West. To secure the necessary options on working majorities of the stock
would be a task for a financial diplomat, and one who could break the
haste-making record by being in a dozen different places at one and the
same moment. Moreover, secrecy became a prime factor in the problem. If
the opposition, and particularly the Transcontinental people, should
get wind of the move, it would take fifteen millions to do the work of
five, as Banker Magnus had intimated.

Notwithstanding the thickly marshaled obstacles, Ford had his plan of
campaign pretty well thought out by the time his train was slowing into
the Union Station. Before going to New York he had painstakingly
"located" the required holdings of the three stocks. Some of them were
in Chicago, but the greater number of the men t