d practicable right of way.

"He came in. He opened up, merely through his own name and all there
is behind it, loan possibilities for which we might have struggled
uselessly the rest of our lives without his help. Between us Mr.
Ainnesley and I just managed to hold the balance of stock control
and--and that's how deep we are in, Mr. O'Mara."

Both men sat and smoked, each avoiding, elaborately, the other's eyes.
After a long pause, Elliott cleared his throat, laboriously.

"This morning," he continued slowly, "this morning I am in receipt of a
communication from Mr. Ainnesley himself, advising me that another
right of way has been applied for, for a single track road here in the
north. The gossip which chanced to come his way was rather obscure.
Little could be learned about the whole affair save that it was being
put forward with a view to tapping the ore and timber lands all the way
to and beyond the border. But as nearly as he could ascertain the
southern terminus of such a road would seem to be about--about at the
mouth of that valley southernmost in the Reserve Company's timber
holdings. Rather a remarkable choice for a railroad terminus, Mr.
O'Mara--wouldn't you say so?"

Steve leaned toward him.

"Do you mean that they've thrown out your earlier application for just
such a grant?"

"That would be a rather harshly definite way of putting it," Elliott
smiled wryly. "Ours is apparently just tabled--oh, tabled pending
certain immaterial changes in the form! You asked me a moment ago--or
did I offer to guess who might be responsible for the report which is
costing us our men? I wonder if I need to tell you who controls this
new northern route?"

"Maybe you've been telling me," Steve came back coolly. "You have
already mentioned----"

"Wickersham!" Hardwick Elliott corrected. "Wickersham--that is,
through allied interests which he represents or controls. O'Mara, I
doubt if I would even insinuate this to anyone else; I haven't even
intimated it to Ainnesley as yet. Wickersham is reputed to represent
huge moneyed foreign interests. But have you ever stopped to wonder
whether he might not represent big local interests as well?"

The tanned face opposite him was so gravely blank that Elliott once
more laughed nervously, deprecatingly.

"Doubt of any man's loyalty such as that query would imply is not one
of my characteristics. I would rather have left this thing unattempted
than to have undertak