st, and was anxious to learn details.

"It worked in the laboratory but not on a commercial basis. Belding,
the chief engineer, is all cut up about it. Consequence is Clark is
buying sulphur, and just now pulp prices are so low he's not making
anything out of it."

"Have you seen Wimperley lately?"

"He was up with Birch a week or so ago."

"Say anything particular?"

Brewster smiled reflectively. "He didn't seem to want to talk."

"What are the obligations?" asked Thorpe after a little pause.

"Of all companies?"

"Of course."

"About two millions as nearly as I can get at them."

"And to us?"

Brewster handed over a slip of paper. "This is a copy of what I
forwarded yesterday."

The older man's brows cleared a little. The combined overdraft was
just over a hundred thousand, against which the bank held Philadelphia
acceptances which he knew would be met. He glanced over the statement
again.

"You've looked after this extremely well. Now what do you want me to
do?"

Brewster drew a long breath. "I don't want you to take my word for
anything, but come up and see for yourself. Go into the woods and up
to the mines and through the entire works--then come to your own
conclusions. It may be I'm too near the thing to get the right
perspective, but I give it to you as I see it."

Thorpe nodded. "I know you have and your branch has done extremely
well."

"Thanks." Brewster laughed. "That's due to the man we're talking
about."

"And supposing," put in Thorpe thoughtfully, "supposing the whole thing
were to go smash! What would you say?"

The other man's eyes rounded a little. "I'd say," he answered slowly,
"that even in that case the entire district would be in Clark's debt."

"Yes?"

"Because they know what's in the country now and how to get it out--and
they never knew that before."

"And the immediate future--what do you see that depends on?"

"Steel rails," said Brewster with conviction. "Will you come up?"

Thorpe did go up, and Clark, who knew that Brewster had been in Toronto
and conceived why, met them both at the works with a genuine welcome.
He felt, nevertheless, that his undertakings were to be analyzed with
cold deliberation.

At the end of two days Thorpe had seen them all--had peered into the
gray black bowels of the iron mine, watched Baudette denuding the
slopes of a multitude of hills--seen the stamps in the gold mill
hammering out the precious particles that we