ead
dubiously, just as Auditor Evans had done.

"Ford, have you any adequate idea of what a tremendous proposition you
are up against?" he asked quietly, helping himself to a cigar out of the
engineer's freshly opened box.

"I don't believe I have underrated the difficulties, any of them," said
Ford, matching the attorney's gravity. "There are bones all the way
along, but I think I have struck the biggest of them just here. I ought
to be in a dozen places at once, and not later than to-morrow noon.
That's something I can't quite compass."

"Getting these options, you mean? That is very true; but it isn't all of
it, by long odds. There are the thousand and one mechanical details to
be worked out: the coupling up of these three local lines at their
connecting points, the securing of proper trackage or trackage rights at
these junctions, the general ordering of things so that a through line
may be opened immediately when the stock is secured. If there were ten
of you, you couldn't get things licked into shape in time to get in on
the grain carrying this season."

Ford had relighted his cigar, which had gone out in the explanatory
interval, and was blowing smoke-rings toward the ceiling.

"I may be the biggest ass this side of the jack trails, and the most
conceited, Kenneth; but you're over on my side of the ring when you talk
about the mechanical obstacles. What I'm worrying about now is the fact
that I can't do two things at once. The options must be secured before
we can make the fifth part of a move in the other field; and the Lord
only knows how long that will take. To hurry is to lose out."

The lawyer nodded. "And not to hurry is to lose out, too," he qualified.
Then he smoked in thoughtful silence for five full minutes before he
said, abruptly: "Give me your list of stock-holders and turn the option
business over to the legal department, where it properly belongs. That
will leave you foot-loose to go after the mechanical matter. How does
that suit you?"

Ford sprang to his feet.

"By Jove, Kenneth, you're a man and a brother; I'm not forgetting that
you are taking this entire fairy tale on my personal say-so; and I
shan't forget it, either. It's what I wanted to ask--and was afraid to
ask, after I got you safely jailed up here."

The attorney's smile was grim but friendly.

"I'm not forgetting how you took a sick man over into the Pannikin
wilderness on a two-months hunting trip last fall and made a wel