elt all that ecstasy of
buoyant and auspicious rebellion which animated Hotspur the night he
could have plucked bright honor from the pale-faced moon. At Jim's
final question, Cornish, forgetting his pique, sprang to the map, swept
his finger along the line Elkins had described, followed the main ribs
of Pendleton's great gridiron, on which the fat of half a dozen states
lay frying, on to terminals on lakes and rivers; and as he turned his
black eyes upon us, we knew from the fire in them that he saw.

"By heavens!" he cried, "you've hit it, Elkins! And it can be done! From
to-night, no more paper railroads for us; it must be grading-gangs and
ties, and steel rails!"

So, also, there was good fighting when Cornish wired from New York for
Elkins and me to come to his aid in placing our Lattimore & Great
Western bonds. Of course, we never expected to build this railway with
our own funds. For two reasons, at least: it is bad form to do eccentric
things, and we lacked a million or two of having the money. The line
with buildings and rolling stock would cost, say, twelve thousand
dollars per mile. Before it could be built we must find some one who
would agree to take its bonds for at least that sum. As no one would pay
quite par for bonds of a new and independent road, we must add, say,
three thousand dollars per mile for discount. Moreover, while the
building of the line was undertaken from motives of self-preservation,
there seemed to be no good reason why we should not organize a
construction company to do the actual work of building, and that at a
profit. That this profit might be assured, something like three thousand
dollars per mile more must go in. Of course, whoever placed the bonds
would be asked to guarantee the interest for two or three years; hence,
with two thousand more for that and good measure, we made up our
proposed issue of twenty thousand dollars per mile of first-mortgage
bonds, to dispose of which "the former member of the firm of Lusch,
Carskaddan & Mayer" was revisiting the glimpses of Wall Street, and
testing the strength of that mighty influence which the _Herald_ had
attributed to him.

"You've just _got_ to win," said Giddings, who was admitted to the
secret of Cornish's embassy, "not only because Lattimore and all the
citizens thereof will be squashed in the event of your slipping up; but,
what is of much more importance, the _Herald_ will be laid in a lie
about your Wall Street pull. Rememb