truction bonds. Guess I could
manage it without, but I need my money for somethin' else. About two
hunderd thousand dollars' worth of bonds'll do it."

Castle shrugged his shoulders--seeing possibilities for the future.
However, he knew Scattergood had weighed those possibilities himself.

"Agreed," he said. There was a moment's silence. "By the way," he asked,
"what was the idea of the condemnation proceedings against Crane and
Keith?"

"Jest a mite of business. With the railroad goin', I need a good mill up
on a site I got below Coldriver. Seems like Crane and Keith got a might
timid, and yestiddy they up and sold out that mill to a friend of
mine--actin' for me--for fifty-five thousand dollars. Figger I got it
dirt cheap. Wuth close to a hunderd thousand, hain't it?... I'm goin' to
move it to Coldriver, lock, stock, and barrel."

"Baines," said Castle, presently, "the G. and B. will keep hands off
your valley. It will be better for us to work together than at odds.
Suppose we bury the hatchet and work for each other's interest.... I'm
paid to know a coming man when I see one."

"Was hopin' you'd see it that way, Mr. President. I hain't one that
hankers for strife ... not even with Lafe, here, if he can figger he's
willin' to admit what he's got to admit."

"I take my orders from you," said Lafe.

In which authentic manner Scattergood Baines, in one transaction, made
possible and financed his railroad, obtained his first mill, and became
undisputed political dictator of his state. Characteristically, there
was charged to expense for the whole transaction a sum that a very
ordinary man could earn in a week. Scattergood loved cheap results.

CHAPTER IV

HE DEALS IN MATCHMAKING

It is known to all the world that Scattergood came to own the stage line
that plied down the valley to the railroad, but minute research and a
sifting of dubious testimony was required to unearth the true details of
that transaction in which the peg leg of Deacon Pettybone figured in a
dominant manner.

Scattergood had long had his eye on the stage line, because his valley,
the Coldriver Valley, was dominated by it. Transportation was king, and
Scattergood knew that if his vision of developing that valley and of
acquiring riches for himself out of the development were ever to become
actuality, he must first control the means of transporting passengers
and commodities. But the stage line was not to be acquired, because
Deacon P