l man of
him, Ford," he said. "Any man who can shoot as straight as you do
wouldn't be sitting here telling me lies about a trifling little matter
involving the expenditure of a beggarly thirty-five millions. But to
come down to earth again: you haven't shifted any considerable part of
the burden, you know. I can do this bit of routine work; but the main
thing is up to you, just as it was before I said yes."

Ford rose, stretching himself like a man who has just been relieved of a
burden whose true weight was appreciable only in its lifting.

"I know," he said cheerfully. "It has been up to me, all along. In the
morning we'll go around to the Algonquin National, and I'll put you into
the financial saddle. Then I'll get out on the line, and by the time you
have the stock corralled, we'll be practically ready to pull through
freight--if not passengers--from Denver to Chicago. Oh, I know what I am
talking about," he added, when the general counsel smiled his
incredulity. "This is no affair of yesterday with me. I have every mile
of these three short roads mapped and cross-sectioned; I have copies of
all their terminal and junction-point contracts. I know exactly what we
can do, and what we can't do."

The lawyer's comment was frankly praiseful, not to say flattering.

"You're a wonder, Ford--and that's no figure of speech. How on earth did
you manage to do it all at such long range?"

Ford's smile was reminiscent of the obstacles.

"It would take me all night to tell you in detail, Kenneth. But I did
it. It's no mere brag to say that I could walk into the Chicago, Peoria
& Davenport general offices here to-morrow morning and organize a
through service over the P. S-W. and the three stub lines within
twenty-four hours, if I had to."

"Well, that part of it is far enough beyond me," said the attorney. "The
stock-chasing is more in my line. I hope we can keep quiet enough about
it so that the opposition won't guess what we are trying to do. You're
sure it won't be given away from the New York end?"

It was the engineer's turn to shake his head and to look dubious.

"Now you are shouting, Kenneth. I can't tell anything about it. You'll
remember that when I left New York the board had turned the plan down,
definitely and permanently, as I supposed. I should say that our only
safety lies in lightning speed. When you get the options on those
controlling stock majorities snugly on deposit in the Algonquin
National, we ca