no one else in the world but you that would be fool enough to
start in here an' buck me!" Ward shouted.

"And therefore you think if I agree to leave, no one else will dare
to undertake the thing? You do me too much honor, Colonel Ward. But I
repeat, I shall not run away."

"Don't you realize I have gone too far into this thing to pull back now?
I warn you that I may have to do things I don't like to do in order to
protect myself. I can't back out now--no, sir!"

"You shouldn't have started in, then!" Parker sat down and looked away
as if the incident were closed. He slowly tore up the agreement and
tossed the pieces on the floor.

This bravado made Ward choke.

"Stand right up, do you, an' threaten to put me into state prison?"

"You went into this with your eyes open. You must take the consequences.
You are a business man, and are supposed to have arrived at years
of understanding. This matter isn't like kicking over a mud house at
school."

"Look here, I've got every lumber operator in this section behind me in
this matter. You hain't realized yet what you're up against."

"If that is the case," Parker replied, his eyes kindling, "I can see
that this state is in for one of the big scandals of its history."

Ward, who had been carried away by his passion and desire to intimidate,
understood now how this admission would compromise men who would be
ruined politically if any hint of such an illegal combination should be
noised abroad.

When he had offered to defeat the actual construction of the road, he
had been warned that he must take all the responsibility upon himself.
He had willingly assumed it, for he was as proud of his reputation
for savage obstinacy as other men are of popular credit for more noble
attributes. Col. Gideon Ward had confidently boasted to his associates
that he would prevent the building of the Poquette railroad. He would
rather lose half his fortune than confess to them that he had been
beaten by a youth.

Now his hardy nature shivered at the thought that not only might the
youth win, but that he had the power to make the agent of the timber
barons doubly execrated and an outcast among his own people. Ward was
faced by the most serious problem of his life, and the uncomfortable
reflection pricked him that he had allowed his anger to steal his
brains.

"Young man," said he, "I've been on earth a good while longer'n you
have. I expect to stay some time yet. And I expect to live rig