and then I didn't have time to. My
only order was, 'Clear the road--and be damn quick about it. 'What I
said went. I've set fire to fifty thousand dollars' worth of mixed
freight just to get it out of the way--and they never kicked. That ain't
the kind of life for me, though. No, nor this ain't, either. I want to
be quiet. I've never had a chance yet, and I've been looking for it ever
since I was twelve years old. I'd like to get a little farm and live on
it all by myself. I'd raise garden truck, cabbages, and such, and I'd
take piano lessons."

"Is that why you quit the Grand Trunk? So that you could take piano
lessons?" Sloan laughed as he asked the question, but Bannon replied
seriously:--

"Why, not exactly. There was a little friction between me and the master
mechanic, so I resigned. I didn't exactly resign, either," he added a
moment later. "I wired the superintendent to go to hell. It came to the
same thing."

"I worked for a railroad once myself," said Sloan. "Was a hostler in the
round-house at Syracuse, New York. I never worked up any higher than
that. I had ambitions to be promoted to the presidency, but it didn't
seem very likely, so I gave it up and came West."

"You made a good thing of it. You seem to own most all Pottawatomie
County."

"Pretty much."

"I wish you would tell me how to do it. I have worked like an
all-the-year-round blast furnace ever since I could creep, and never
slighted a job yet, but here I am--can't call my soul my own. I have
saved fifteen thousand dollars, but that ain't enough to stop with. I
don't see why I don't own a county too."

"There's some luck about it. And then I don't believe you look very
sharp for opportunities. I suppose you are too busy. You've got a chance
this minute to turn your fifteen thousand to fifty; maybe lot more."

"I'm afraid I'm too thick-headed to see it."

"Why, what you found out this morning was the straightest kind of a
straight tip on the wheat market for the next two months. A big elevator
like yours will be almost decisive. The thing's right in your own hands.
If Page & Company can't make that delivery, why, fellows who buy wheat
now are going to make money."

"I see," said Bannon, quickly. "All I'd have to do would be to buy all
the wheat I could get trusted for and then hold back the job a little.
And while I was at it, I might just as well make a clean job and walk
off with the pay roll." He laughed. "I'd look pretty, wouldn't