The San Francisco call., 1908-10-04


striving, self sufficient city. But isola-
tion in any sort is a thing to be reck-
oned with. The two pioneering years
in the Rockies had done their work-of
narrowing, as we'll as of broadening,-
and the plunge into the chilling sea of
the money mad metropolis made him
shiver and wish he were out.
This feeling was really at the bottom
of the late rising and the leisurely
breakfast, making him temporize where
he had meant to be prompt, energetic
and vigorously aggressive. Having
pocketed- the young woman's unsigned
note, he glanced at his watch and de-
cided that it was still too early to go in
search of President Colbrith.
Il don't suppose he'll be in his Office
for an hour yet" he mused refiectively,
and anyway, l guess I'd better go over
the papers again, so / can be sure to
speak my piece right end to. BY Jovei
l didn't suppose a couple of thousand
miles of casting would take the heart
out of things the way it does. If 1
didn't know better. | should think I'd
come here to float. the biggest kind of Il
fake. instead of a lifeboat for the ship
wrecked people in the Pacific South
western. 1t is beginning to look that
way in spite of ali l can do
Going once again over his carefully
tabulated argument did not help mat
ters greatly. He was beginning to
realize now how vastly, antipodally diff
ferent the New York point of view
might be from his own. 1t came to him
with the benumbing effect of a blow
that his own ambitions had persistently
looked beyond the mere money making
results of his scheme. Also. that Presi-
dent Colbrith and his fellow investors
might very easily refuse to consider
any other phase of the revolutionary
proposition he was about to lay before
them.
By 10 o'clock postponement was no
longer A tenable city of refuge; the
plunge had to be taken. Accordingly,
he Jared forth to present himself at the
Broadway address given in the Pacific
Southwestern printed matter as the
New York headquarters of the company
The number proved to be ground
floor with the business office of the
eastern traffic representative in front,
and three or four private desk rooms in
the rear, one of them labeled "Presi-
dent" in inconspicuous gilt lettering.
Entering. with less assurance than If
he had been the humblest of place seek
ers out of a job. Ford was almost re-
lieved to find only a closed desk, and a
young man absently scanning a morn
ing paper.
Inquiry developed few facts, terseIy
stated but none the less enlightening.
Mr.. Colbrith was not in; the office was
merely his nominal headquarters in the
city and he occupied it only occasional
ly. His residence? 1t was in the Bor-
ough of the Bronx, pretty well nm
toward Yonkers- locality and means Of
access oblgingly written out on a. card
for the caller by the clerk Was Mr..
Ford's business of a routine nature? IF
so. perhaps, Mr.. Ten Eyck, the general
agent. could attend to it, Ford said IL
was not of a routine nature. and made
his escape to inquire his way to the
nearest subway station To pause now
was to lose the precious impetus of
the start.
1t was worth something to be whirled
away blindly out of the sitting human
vortex of the lower city, but Ford's
first glimpse of the Colbrith mansion
depressed him again The huge, formal
house had once been the country resi-
dence of retired dry goods merchant
1t fronted the river brazenly and the
fine old trees of 10 acre park shamed
its architectural stiffness Ford knew
the president little by family renute
and more particularly as a young sub
ordinate knows the general in com
mand. 1t struck him forcibly that the
aspect of the house fitted the man
With the broad river and the distant
Palisades to be dwelt upon. its outlook
windows were narrow. With the Sion
ing park and the great trees to give 1t
dignity, it seemed to assume an artifi-
cial plumb line dignity of It's own. i'm
pressive only as the product of rigid
measurements and mechanical upright
ness.
From the boulevard there was a
graveled driveway with a stone portal.
The iron gates were thrown wide and
at hts entrance Ford stood aside to LET
an outgoing auto car have the right of
way Being full of his errand, and of
the abstraction of a depressed soul.
Ford merely remarked that there were
two persons in the car, young man
driving, and a young woman, yelled
and dust coated, in the mechaniciau's s