Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-10-20


| i Rayburn Miller standing in
l6@ssI the door of his little office
@G building waiting for him.
II reckon my message surprised
you," Miller said tentatively as he
shook hands.
ut took me off my feet" smiled Alan.
you see. never hoped to get you in
terested in that scheme, and when l
heard you We're actually going to At
lanta about it 1 hardly knew what to
make Of it,
Miller turned into his Office, kicked a
chair toward Alan and dropped into
his creaking rocker.
1T was not due to you that l did get
interested" he said. do you know,
can't think of it without getting hot all
over with shame. To tell you the truth,
there is one thing l have always been
vain about. l didn't honestly think
there was man in Georgia that could
give me any tips about investments,
but had to take backwater, and for
woman. Think Of that-a woman
knocked me off my perch as clean and
easy as she could stick hairpin in
ball Of hair. I'm not unfair. When
anybody teaches me any tricks. l ac-
knowledge the corn and take off my
hat. 1t was this way. dropped in
to see Miss Dolly the other evening.
accidentally disclosed two things in
an offhand sort of way. I told her
some Of the views gave you at the
dance in regard to marriage and love
and one thing and another, and then,
in complimenting you most highly in
other things, I confess l sort of poked
fun at your railroad idea"
II thought you had" said Alan good
naturally. But go on"
We'll, she first read me lecture
about bad, empty, shallow men, whose
very souls were damned by their past
careers, interfering with the pure i'm
pulses of younger men, and I'll swear
felt like crawling in hole and pull
ing the hole in after me. Well, got
through that in fashion because she
didn't want me to see her real heart,
and that helped me. Then she took up
the railroad scheme. You know had
heard that she advised her father In
all his business matters; but, geewhil-
ikins, never dreamed she could give
me points, but she did-she simply did.
She looked me straight in the eye and
stared at me like a national bank ex-
aminer as she asked me to explain why
that particular road could not be built
and why it would not be bonanza for
the owners Of the timber land.
thought she was an easy fish at first,
and gave her plenty of line. but she
kept peppering me with unanswerable
questions till lay down on the bank
US weak as rag. The first bliff she
gave me was in wanting to know II
there We're not many branch roads that
did not own their rolling stock She
said she knew one in the iron belt In
Alabama that didn't own car or an
| engine, and wouldn't have them as
| free gift. She said If such road were
built as you plan these two main lines
would simply fall over each other to
| send out cars to be loaded for ship
ment at competitive rates. By George,
1t was corker! found out the next
day that she was right, and that doing
away with the rolling stock. shops and
30 forth would cut down the cost of
your road more than half"
That's a fact" exclaimed Alan,
land had not thought of it."
"She's stronger woman than ever
imagined" said Miller. "By George,
II she were not on your string, I'd
make dead set for her. A wife like
that would make man complete.
She's in love with you, or thinks she
is, but she hasn't that will-o'-the-wisp
glamour, She's business from her toes
to her finger tips. By George, be-
lieve she makes business CT her love
affair. She seems to think she'll settle
it by sum III algebra. But to get
back to the railroad, for I've got lots
to tell you. What do you reckon
found that day? You couldn't guess in
a thousand years. 1t was prelimi-
nary survey of railroad once planned
from barley right through your fa-
theirs purchase to Morganton, N. G..
1t was made just before the war by
Did Colonel Wade, who, in his day, was
one Of the most noted surveyors In the
state. This end of the line was all I
cared about, and that was almost as
level as floor along the river and
down the valley into the north end of
town. It's bonanza, my boy! Why
that big bottle of timber land has new
er been busted is wonder to me. If
as many Yankees had been nosing
about here as there have been in other
southern sections, it would have been
snatched up long ago"
"pm awfully glad to hear you say all
this" said Alan, "for it is the only
way out of our difficulty, and some
thing has to be done"
ut may cost you few years of the
hardest work you ever bucked down
to-" said Miller, "and some sleepless
nights, but I really believe you have
fallen on to a better thing than any
I ever struck. l could make it whiz.
I've already done something that will
astonish you. happen to know slight
,ly Tillman Wilson, the president of the
Southern Land and Timber company.
Their offices are in Atlanta. knew
he was my man to tackle, SO when l
got to Atlanta yesterday ran upon
him just as If it were accidental. I
invited him to lunch with me at the
Capitol City club; you know I'm n
nonresident member. You see, I knew
If put myself in the light of n man
with something to sell, he'd hurry
away from me, but didn't. AS n