n
a hundred years--the mine would still be unexhausted. It did not seem
romantic like Fisette's vein of gold ore, this barren-looking upheaval,
but to him the romance of a thing was in its potentiality and not its
appearance, and it moved in his mind now that there was every reason
for haste. Philadelphia was beginning to weary of capital expenditure,
and demanded an output of steel rails at the earliest possible moment.

Completing his round with a visit to Baudette's headquarter camp, he
inspected train loads of pulp wood ready for the mills. The areas
originally secured were nearly denuded and Baudette was forced further
afield. The mills were doing and had always done well, but their
profits were so instantly absorbed by allied and interlinked
undertakings that Clark at times wondered whether he was asking one
dollar to do too much. He reflected with a touch of surprise that the
small company formed to supply St. Marys with water and light was,
after all, the only one which from the first had actually disbursed
dividends. But the rail mill would settle all that. Returning to the
works he found a note on his desk that Townley, the chemist, would like
audience. He sent for him.

"Well?" he demanded impatiently; "what about that sulphur?"

Townley submitted a condensed report. "We can get it out at a cost of
about half the market price." He spoke with a note of triumph. He had
been slaving over the problem with the sacrificial zeal that
characterizes all keen chemists. But Townley did not know, and it was
impossible for him to know, that many things are feasible in a
laboratory which are irreducible to commercial terms.

Clark nodded as though he expected this. "Bring Belding in here."

When the engineer appeared, he went on, "We're going to do something
new. Townley will give you his end of it, and you work out the rest.
It's chemical engineering, so get any assistance you need. Give me
estimates of costs and say how soon the plant can be put up. Figure on
a hundred tons of sulphite pulp per day--dry weight. That's all."

The two went out, and he leaned back, pressing his finger tips hard on
his lids, and finding in the red blur that followed something that
soothed and rested his eyes. He was not one who sought out problems
and chased them to their solution, but rather one who perceived the
problem and, by singularly acute vision, perceived also the solution
just behind it. There were so many