o be bargained with were
local capitalists living in the smaller cities along the lines of the
three short railroads.

In his bag was a carefully compiled list of these stock-holders, with
their addresses and the amounts of their respective holdings. At the
worst, he concluded, it should mean nothing more formidable than a deal
of quick traveling, some anxious bargaining, perhaps, and a little
finesse to keep his object in securing the options safely in the
background.

This was how it appeared in the prospect; and the young engineer had yet
to learn that the securing of options is a trade by itself--a trade by
no means to be caught up in passing, even by the most gifted of tyros.

Hence, it was extremely fortunate for this particular tyro--more
fortunate than he could possibly know at the moment--that his telephone
message sent from the first telephone he could reach after his train
stopped in the Union Station, caught Kenneth at the Green Bag Club. It
was a mere chance that he knew that Kenneth, the senior member of the
firm of attorneys having general oversight of the Pacific Southwestern's
legal department, was at the moment in Chicago; a chance hanging upon
the fact that he had met Kenneth as he was passing through on his way
eastward. But it was not by chance that the first familiar face he saw
on entering the rotunda of the Grand Pacific Hotel was that of Kenneth.
The sight was merely the logical result of Ford's urgent request
telephoned to the lawyer's club.

"By Jove, Kenneth; this comes within two inches of being a miracle!--my
catching you here before you had started West," Ford ejaculated. And
then: "When are you going back?"

"I am supposed to be on the way now," was the lawyer's reply. "I had
made all my arrangements to start back to-night on the slow train, but I
dined with some friends on the North Side and made a miss. Where have
you been?"

"I'm just in from New York. Let me register and get a room; and you put
away any lingering notion you may have of heading westward to-night.
I've got to have your ear for a few hours to begin with, and the whole
of you for the next few days. No; don't probe me here. Wait, and I'll
unload on you gradually. You won't be sorry you missed your train."

Fifteen minutes later Ford had his adviser safely behind a closed door,
and had put him succinctly in possession of the world-subverting facts,
as far as they went. When he concluded, the lawyer was shaking his h