crowd with Alicia on his arm, heeding nothing until
he had seen her safely above stairs and in the sitting-room of the
president's reservation, with a cheerful fire in the big sheet-iron
stove for her comforting. Then he went down and elbowed his way through
the clamorous lobby to the clerk's desk.

"Suppose you take a minute or two off and tell me what this town has
gone crazy about, Hildreth," he said, with a backward nod toward the
lobby pandemonium.

"Why, Great Scott! Mr. Ford--have you got this far into it without
finding out?" was the astounded rejoinder. "It's a gold strike on Cow
Mountain--the biggest since Cripple Creek! We've doubled our population
since seven o'clock this morning; and by this time to-morrow.... Say,
Mr. Ford; for heaven's sake, get your railroad in here! We'll all go
hungry within another twenty-four hours--can't get supplies for love or
money!"

Ford turned away and looked out upon the stock-selling pandemonium with
unseeing eyes. The chance--the heaven-sent hour that strikes only once
in a life-time for the builders of empire--had come: and he was only
waiting for the arrival of the president to find himself rudely thrust
aside from the helm of events.

XXIII

THE DEADLOCK

"No, Mr. Ford; there is no explanation that will explain away the
incriminating fact. This is a matter which involves the good name of the
Pacific Southwestern company, through its officials, and I must insist
upon your resignation."

The battle was on, with the two combatants facing each other in the
privacy of the president's room in the Copah hotel. Since Alicia had
made him exchange the sword of extermination for the olive branch, Ford
was fighting on the defensive, striving good-naturedly and persistently
to keep his official head on his shoulders.

"I've admitted that it looks pretty bad, Mr. Colbrith; but you will
concede the one chance in a hundred that no wrong was intended. I merely
did, on the ground, what thousands of investors in mining chances do the
world over--bought an interest in a mine without knowing or caring
greatly into what particular mountain the mine tunnel was driven."

Mr. Colbrith frowned. He was of that elder generation of masters which
looked with cold disapproval upon any side ventures on the part of the
subordinate.

"The company has paid you liberally for your time and your undivided
attention, Mr. Ford. No man can serve two masters. Your appointment as
assistant