uction of McGowan's," he continued, "is
especially to be condemned, as there is not the slightest doubt that the
contractor has intentionally slighted his work--a neglect which, but
for the thorough manner in which MacFarlane had constructed the lower
culvert, might have resulted in the loss of many lives."

McGowan snarled and sputtered, denouncing Garry and his "swallow-tails"
in the bar rooms and at the board meetings, but the decision was
unanimous, two of his friends concurring, fearing, as they explained
afterward, that the "New York crowd" might claim even a larger sum in a
suit for damages.

The meeting over, Morris and Jack dined with MacFarlane and again
the distinguished architect won Ruth's heart by the charm of his
personality, she telling Jack the next day that he was the only OLD
MAN--fifty was old for Ruth--she had ever seen with whom she could have
fallen in love, and that she was not sure after all but that Jack
was too young for her, at which there was a great scrimmage and a
blind-man's-buff chase around the table, up the front stairs and into
the corner by the window, where she was finally caught, smothered in
kisses and made to correct her arithmetic.

This ghost of damages having been laid--it was buried the week after
Jack had called on his uncle--the Chief, the First Assistant, and
Bangs, the head foreman, disappeared from Corklesville and reappeared at
Morfordsburg.

The Chief came to select a site for the entrance of the shaft; the First
Assistant came to compare certain maps and documents, which he had taken
from the trunk he had brought with him from his Maryland home, with the
archives resting in the queer old courthouse; while Foreman Bangs was to
help with the level and target, should a survey be found necessary.

The faded-out old town clerk looked Jack all over when he asked to see
the duplicate of a certain deed, remarking, as he led the way to the
Hall of Records,--it was under a table in the back room,--"Reckon
there's somethin' goin' on jedgin' from the way you New Yorkers is
lookin' into ore lands up here. There come a lawyer only last month from
a man named Breen, huntin' up this same property."

The comparisons over and found to be correct, "starting from a certain
stone marked 'B' one hundred and eighty-seven feet East by South," etc.,
etc., the whole party, including a small boy to help carry the level
and target and a reliable citizen who said he could find the property