of the profit to him!" protested the president. "He paid only
twenty cents for his half of the Alicia; he told me so himself. At two
hundred he'd clear ninety thousand; a magnificent amount for so young a
man!"

"Ford doesn't care anything about money. You can't move him that way."

"Well, then, find him for me and I'll--I'll apologize," said Mr.
Colbrith, pressed now to the last extremity.

"He doesn't want your apologies, Uncle Sidney. Your little tiff was
between man and man, and he'd never think of holding you accountable for
anything you were foolish enough to say."

"Then what in heaven's name does he want?"--irascibly.

"Oh, a lot of things: reinstatement; your order to investigate the
Denver management; a chance to build his railroad unmolested; and, as a
side issue, a chance to whitewash your administration of Pacific
Southwestern by conducting the house-cleaning in your name--this last
because he thinks something of the family honor. He doesn't have to
consider us, you know. At the next annual meeting he can elect Brewster
president over your head: then you will have to stand for all the
grafting and deviltry that will be unearthed."

The ground for this duel between President Colbrith and the determined
young pace-setter was the lobby of the tar-paper-covered hotel, cleared
now of the impromptu mining-stock exchange, which had moved into
permanent quarters. The old man rose stiffly and stood grasping the
chair-back.

"The same reckless charges against Mr. North and his subordinates--and
now _you_ are making them!" he rasped. "They are groundless; groundless,
I tell you!"

Adair looked at his watch, listened a moment as for some expected sound
from out-of-doors, and motioned toward the vacated chair.

"Sit down, Uncle Sidney, and let me tell you what happened at Horse
Creek camp a week ago last night," he said evenly; and then he told the
story of the attempt upon Ford's life, of the siege of the Nadia, of the
terrible catastrophe which had involved all three of the MacMorroghs,
the commissary staff, Eckstein, and the headquarters camp. When he
finished, the president was shaking as if from a chill. Yet one thread
of the strong strand of loyalty still held.

"It was horrible--fiendish!" he shuddered. "But it was the MacMorroghs'
fight. It does not necessarily incriminate North."

"It does," said Adair, in the same even tone. "I told you that we left a
few men at the wrecked camp to warn the incom