Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-04-30

| TOR more than a year now Gril- L. ford Duncan had been diligently studying those processes of up- ~ building which were so rapidly converting the west into an empire of | extraordinary wealth and power. He had made many suggestions that had commended themselves for immediate execution, together with some that must wait for years to come. He had condemned some projects that seemed hopeful to others, and he had induced notifications in many.
 All these things had been done main- ly in his letters and reports to Captain Will Hallam, but the substance of those letters and reports had been promptly laid before others, especially before those great financiers of the east upon whom all enterprises of mo ment throughout the country depended for the means of their accomplishment. In that way Guilford Duncan had be- come known to the master builders" as he called these men, and had won a goodly share of their confidence. He was regarded as young man of un- usual gifts in the way of constructive enterprise "a trifie overbold, some thought, overco1fdent, even visionary, but, in the main, sound in his calcula tions. as results had shown when his plans were adopted. On the other hand. some projectors. whose enter prises he had discouraged as unsound or premature, complained that so far from being a visionary he was in fact
 a pessimist, a discouraging force that
 stood in the way of that development
 of the country" from which they hoped
 for personal gain of one kind or an
 other.
 Napper Tandy was GuiIford Dun- cans enemy from the hour in which
 Duncan had forced that little branch railroad in the coal regions to haul Hallam's coal on equal terms with his own. But Tandy had said nothing whatever about that He never pub lished his enmities till the time came. About the time of Duncan's return to Cairo he added another to his offenses against Handy, in a way to intensity that malignant persons hostility.
 Handy was scheming to secure a costly extension of this branch rail road through a sparsely settled and thin solled region in way that would greatly enrich himself because of his vast property holdings there. He had we'll nigh persuaded a group of capI- talists to undertake the extension when, acting cautiously. as financiers must, they decided to ask Duncan to study the situation and make a report upon the project. He had already studied the question thoroughly during his stay at the mines and was con vinced that nothing but loss could come of the attempt The region through which the line must run was too poor in agricultural and other re sources to afford even 6 hope of a paying traffic. The line itself must be a costly one because of certain tOpo- graphical features. and. finally. another and shorter line. closely, paraIIelLag this proposed extension. but running through a much richer country. was already in course of construction
 Tsndy knew all these things quite as well as GuiIfcrd Duncan did But Handy also knew many methods in business with which Duncan was not familiar.
 As sooa as he was notified by the capitalists with whom he was negotist- ing that they had employed Duncan to examine and report and that their final decision would be largely influenced by his judgment. Tandy. with special po- IitenesS. wrote to Duncan asking him to call at his house that evening for a little consultation 0a business affairs that mzy interest both Of us-
 Du1czl veil knew tat he had ef-