gh about everything.
But he did have a big milling property out on the line of the P. Y. &
X.,--saw-mills and grist-mills and lands,--and for the last eight years
he's been doing a land-office business with 'em--business that would
have made anybody else rich. But you can't make Milton K. Rogers rich,
any more than you can fat a hide-bound colt. It ain't in him. He'd
run through Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and Tom Scott rolled into one in
less than six months, give him a chance, and come out and want to
borrow money of you. Well, he won't borrow any more money of ME; and
if he thinks I don't know as much about that milling property as he
does he's mistaken. I've taken his mills, but I guess I've got the
inside track; Bill's kept me posted; and now I'm going out there to see
how I can unload; and I shan't mind a great deal if Rogers is under the
load when it's off once."

"I don't understand you, Silas."

"Why, it's just this. The Great Lacustrine & Polar Railroad has leased
the P. Y. & X. for ninety-nine years,--bought it, practically,--and
it's going to build car-works right by those mills, and it may want
them. And Milton K. Rogers knew it when he turned 'em in on me."

"Well, if the road wants them, don't that make the mills valuable? You
can get what you ask for them!"

"Can I? The P. Y. & X. is the only road that runs within fifty miles of
the mills, and you can't get a foot of lumber nor a pound of flour to
market any other way. As long as he had a little local road like the
P. Y. & X. to deal with, Rogers could manage; but when it come to a big
through line like the G. L. & P., he couldn't stand any chance at all.
If such a road as that took a fancy to his mills, do you think it would
pay what he asked? No, sir! He would take what the road offered, or
else the road would tell him to carry his flour and lumber to market
himself."

"And do you suppose he knew the G. L. & P. wanted the mills when he
turned them in on you?" asked Mrs. Lapham aghast, and falling
helplessly into his alphabetical parlance.

The Colonel laughed scoffingly. "Well, when Milton K. Rogers don't
know which side his bread's buttered on! I don't understand," he added
thoughtfully, "how he's always letting it fall on the buttered side.
But such a man as that is sure to have a screw loose in him somewhere."
Mrs. Lapham sat discomfited. All that she could say was, "Well, I want
you should ask yourself whether Rogers would ever have gon