He got up and walked slowly back, plunged in thought, but not of those
who passed and touched their hats and to whom he was the
personification of power. There was in his mind the talk he had with
Wimperley, a few months before. "We're in your hands," he had said,
"but there's a limit to what we can raise. Push on with work and don't
forget about dividends."

Remembering it, Clark smiled. The dividends might be delayed a year or
so, but when they came it would be in a flood like the rapids. At his
office he found a telegram from the purchasing agent in the United
States. Blast furnaces were under way, and, he reported, he had
secured an option on a rail mill. It was not new, but could be had at
once. To dismantle and reerect would save six months as against the
time required to build a new one. This purchase would also save
hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He pondered for some time, with Wimperley's remarks about dividends
keeping up an irritating onslaught. He was aware in a strange but
quite unmistakable way that this decision now to be made was in a quite
positive sense more momentous than appeared on the surface. He hung
over it, balancing the advantages of a new mill against a definite
saving. It was not the sum about which he hesitated, but a touch of
uncertainty as to just how much capital Wimperley and the rest could
actually provide. Then suddenly he decided to be economical, even
though a secondhand mill had obvious weaknesses.

In the next moment he rang for Belding. The engineer answered with a
weariness daily becoming more settled, and which was only relieved by
the spontaneous loyalty he had from the first conceived for his chief.
Of late he never entered Clark's office without anticipating some
addition to burdens he had already determined were too heavy for his
young shoulders. But now, too, as always, he had no sooner closed the
door and caught the extraordinary power in Clark's eyes than he was
caught up in the grip of his chief's confidence and felt ready for the
effort.

"You know the ground on the other side of the river?"

"Yes, sir."

"I wish you would take a look over it very quietly and bring me a town
map on which you have indicated the cheapest possible route for another
power canal."

"Another canal!" said Belding involuntarily.

"It's important that it should be the cheapest possible," went on
Clark, apparently without hearing, "and you'll have to balance up the
m