route once with Mr.
Foster and the civil engineers."

"Was it, in your opinion, a bona fide railroad, Mr. Tisdale? Or simply a
lure to entice people to make coal locations in order that they might be
bought after the patents were issued?"

"It was started in good faith." The steel rang, a warning note, in his
voice. "The largest stockholder had spent nearly a hundred thousand
dollars in opening his coal claim. He was in need of immediate
transportation."

"This was after the Chugach Company consolidated with the Prince William
syndicate, Mr. Tisdale?"

"No, sir. It was previous to that time. The Chugach Railway and
Development Company had chosen one of the finest harbors in Alaska for a
terminus. It was doubly protected from the long Pacific swell by the
outer, precipitous shore of Prince William Sound. But their greatest
engineering problem met them there at the start. It was necessary to cross
a large glacier back of the bay. There was no possible way to build around
it; the only solution was a bore under the ice. The building of such a
tunnel meant labor and great expense. And it was not a rich company; it
was made up principally of small stockholders, young men, just out of
college some of them, who had gone up there with plenty of enthusiasm and
courage to invest in the enterprise, but very little money. They did their
own assessment work, dug like any coal miners with pick and shovel, cut
and carried the timbers to brace their excavations under Mr. Foster's
instructions. And when construction commenced on the railroad, they came
down to do their stunt at packing over the glacier--grading began from the
upper side--and sometimes they cut ties."

"And meantime," said the attorney brusquely, "Mr. Foster, who was
responsible I believe, was trying to interest other capital to build the
tunnel."

"Yes. And meantime, the Prince William syndicate started a parallel
railroad to the interior from the next harbor to the southwestward. It was
difficult to interest large capital with competition so close." Tisdale
paused; his glance moved from Mr. Bromley to the jury, his voice took its
minor note. "Stuart Foster did hold himself responsible to those young
fellows. He had known most of them personally in Seattle; they were a
picked company for the venture. He had youth and courage himself, in those
days, but he knew Alaska--he had been there before and made good. He had
their confidence. He was that kind of man; one to