his attention on the rapids. Here, at least,
was that which had no shadow of turning. Distinguishing the multitude of
notes that lifted their booming uproar, he yielded to the sensation that
he was in the midst of them, being carried to the sea.

To-night they seemed relentless, but that again was the reflection of his
mood. If he was going down, Wimperley and the rest were going with him.
Finally he was able, at some command from this tumult, to disassociate
himself from the present and go back to the beginning. Retracing each
step, he decided that, were a parallel occasion to arise, he would do the
same again. He had listened to the voice of the hills and woods and
water, rather than to the voice of Philadelphia, and this, he ultimately
concluded, was right. There was no time to brood or forecast the future.
What his soul craved was to be persuaded that it was justified up to this
hour. Only thus could he find strength for that which was yet to come.

Carrying his solitary reverie still further, he was assured that it would
be for him and him alone to find the way out. Wimperley and the others
were able men as far as they went, but just as they had always loitered
behind his imagination, so now would they be slow in deciphering the
riddle in store. He had brought them in, and it would be left for him to
bring others in also. Very easily he visualized what had taken place in
Philadelphia, and the group in Wimperley's office stood out quite
clearly. He felt no particular sympathy for them, nor did it appear that
the responsibility was primarily his own because it was his brain that
conceived the whole gigantic machine. They had acted according to their
final judgment, so had he. With small and genuine investors the case was
different, but Clark was well aware that Consolidated stock had been a
favorite Pennsylvania gamble for years. As to his own employees, he knew
that the works must ultimately go on and could not go on without them.
This left only himself to be considered, and at the thought this
extraordinary man smiled confidently. He was stranger to that fear which
is based on uncertainty of one's own resources.

An hour after sundown he went home and, sending for Bowers, the two sat
talking earnestly. For Bowers it had been a day of vicissitude which he
was only partially competent to face. Rooted out of a small practice in
a small village, and caught up in the sweep of irresistible progress, he