truction
work, and thus to avoid all possibility of the forfeiture of the county
and town subscriptions.

The greatest difficulty encountered was in meeting the requirement that
a car should actually cross the line between the two counties by noon of
the fifteenth of March. That part of the line was peculiarly difficult
of access. It could be reached only by a twenty-five mile journey across
country, over roads which, in the winter, were well-nigh impassable. In
order to build any sort of railroad line at the point involved, it was
necessary to carry across country all the tools, earth cars, and
construction materials, together with a large company of workmen. Huts
must be built to shield the men from the severity of the weather, and
provisions for them must be hauled over twenty-five miles of swamp
roads. In order to do so, streams must be bridged for the wagons, and in
many places the road must be "corduroyed" for many miles of its extent.
That is to say, it must be paved with unhewn logs, laid side by side
across it.

It was near the end of February, therefore, before anything like
systematic construction at that point could be got under way.

Meanwhile, Duncan's mission to New York had been successful, though it
was attended by much of difficulty. He had secured the necessary stock
subscriptions, and better still, he had succeeded in inducing one of the
great trunk lines of the East to guarantee a considerable bond issue on
the part of the new road, under an agreement that when completed it
should be made, in effect, an extension of the eastern company's lines.

The only problem now was to prevent that diversion of the proposed line
which Tandy was openly trying to bring about. The New York capitalists
whom Duncan had secured as stockholders in the enterprise, were, many of
them, disposed to look upon the proposed change of terminus from Cairo
to the rival city with a good deal of favor. Such a change would
considerably shorten the line to be built, and the connection southwest
from Paducah to Memphis was in some respects a more desirable one than
that from Cairo.

But Duncan had secured from the capitalists a trustworthy promise that
the line should be built to Cairo, as originally planned, provided the
Cairo people, with Duncan, Hallam, and Stafford at their head, should
protect the subscriptions of the two hesitating counties by meeting the
requirement imposed at Tandy's suggestion. Thus everything depended