crossed and intercrossed so that no man could tell
where it ended. But all men could surely tell that these lines of
influence ran from all ends of the county into the hand of the
attorney for the railroad in Alden and that from his hand they
passed on into the hands of the single great man in New York whose
money and brain dominated the whole transportation business of the
State. All men knew, too, that those lines passed through the Capitol
at Albany and that no man there, from the Executive down to the
youngest page in the legislative corridors, was entirely immune from
their influence.

Now the U. & M. Railroad had been openly charged with having procured
the setting of the fire that had left five hundred hill people
homeless in Tupper and Adirondack Counties. It would, of course, be
impossible to bring the railroad to trial on such a charge in any
county of the State. The company had really nothing to fear in the way
of criminal prosecution. But the matter had touched the temper and
roused the suspicions of the great, headless body called the public.
The railroad felt that it must not be silent under even a muttered
and vague charge of such nature. It must strike first, and in a
spectacular manner. It must divert the public mind by a counter
charge.

Before the rain had come down to wet the ashes of the fire, the Grand
Jury of Racquette County had been prepared to find an indictment
against Jeffrey Whiting for the murder of Samuel Rogers. They had
found that Samuel Rogers was an agent of the railroad engaged upon a
peaceable and lawful journey through the hills in the interests of his
company. He had been found shot through the back of the head and the
circumstances surrounding his death were of such a nature and
disposition as to warrant the finding of a bill against the young man
who for months had been leading a stubborn fight against the
railroad.

The case had been advanced over all others on the calendar in Judge
Leslie's court, for the railroad was determined to occupy the mind of
the public with this case until the people should have had time to
forget the sensation of the fire. The mind at the head of the
railroad's affairs argued that the mind of the public could hold only
one thing at a time. Therefore it was better to put this murder case
into that mind and keep it there until some new thing should arise.

The celerity with which Jeffrey Whiting had been brought to trial; the
well-oiled smoothnes