stood pat. But Swinnerton with his counter-scheme interested a lot
of other capital, and through some of the men he got in with him he
got the ear of some of the higher-ups on the P. C. & W. He even got
his scheme into the private office of the president, and from the
president word ran down to Gray. I think even Gray began then to get
shaky in the knees. I tell you, Conniston, the Old Man's project is so
big that until it is consummated there will always be a doubt in other
men's minds whether the thing ever can be done. If it can't, if it
proves impracticable to irrigate this country, to build first Valley
City and then a string of settlements across the desert, why then of
course there would be nothing in it for the P. C. & W. to run a spur
across to Indian Creek.

"And Oliver Swinnerton made it his business to show the management of
the railroad that the thing was impossible, that it was a mad fool's
dream, that when the first day of October came there would be nothing
accomplished because there never could be anything accomplished. He
scored his point, and then he played his trump card. He showed that
the same money which the railroad would have to spend in stringing
rails across the sand here could be spent more advantageously in
another direction.

"On the other side of Bolton there are grassy foothills, well watered--a
big stretch of country very much like that about Crawfordsville.
Already there are orchards there, considerable small farming,
grain-raising and hay. Swinnerton planned to build a town out there in
the heart of that fertile country where there are now a number of
settlements and to have the P. C. & W. run a seventy-five-mile spur out
that way. The management naturally will not stand for the expense of
both roads at the same time, since both would be very largely in the
nature of experiments. Swinnerton's scheme looked more promising than
the Old Man's. Swinnerton got his contract with the railroad. And that
contract says that if on the first day of October Mr. Crawford has not
made good he will be given not a day's grace, but work will be begun on
the other road into Swinnerton's country. Do you see now what I mean by
opposition? Do you see what will happen if we don't come up to time on
our end of the game? Swinnerton is so confident that he holds the
winning hand that he has already founded his town, already sunk a pile
of money in it. Somebody is going to go to the wall when the first day
of