Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-27
XV-Continued,

In the little interval of silence Miss
Adair was focusing her field glass and
trying to trace the line of the descending
grade into the headwater valley Of the
Pannikin Ford did not mean to be I'M
gracious to her-what lover ever means
to be curt to the one woman in all the
world? But it is not easy to be angry
in nine parts and loving kind in the
tenth-anger being one of the inclusive
emotions. Nevertheless. he made the eff
fort for her sake. However inconsiderate
Mr. Colbrith was, she was blameless.
LET me show you he said, taking the
field glass and adjusting It for her Now
hold it steadily and pick up the line in the
great loop. Have you found It?
Now follow ii slowly until you
valley. and you can trace 1t for miles by
the cuts and fills.
She followed his directions until the line
OF the extension became a vanishing
tent to let the glass sweep the vastnesses
beyond. When she spoke 1t was of the
topogra phic tmmensities.
IT heard you telling brother at the
dinner table IN Chicago that you were
able to see more In this wilderness than
you have ever been able to make any one
else see. Can l see it with the glass;
Hardly" he smiled. Il was trying to
tell your brother of the magnificent pos
sibilities of the country lying between
this and that farthest mountain range.
the country We are going to open up 1t
was a gospel l had been trying to preach
to the directors. but none of them be
lieved-not even your uncle
Il see nothing but vastness and cold
gray grandeurs." she said. adding. land
the very bigness of 1t makes me feel like
a mere atom or Observation-Disclosures
Is the smaller"
/,
he re1oined. with a touch of the old en-
thusiasm. waiting only for the coming
of this"-putting his foot again upon the
steel of the new railroad line. What you
are looking at has been called part OF
the Great American Desert-the most for
bidding part in the stories of the early
explorers Notwithstanding there will
come a time when you can focus your
glass here on this mountain and look out
over what the promoters will then be adj
vertising as 'peopled paradise and
these logs of wood in a row, with two
strands of iron to fasten them together
will bring it to pass
There was a flash OF the enthusiast S
fire in the cool gray eyes to go with the
words, and Miss Adair wondered at it.
He had stood for her as an embodiment
of things practical and 9rosaic; one
too keenly watchful and alert on the
purely industrial side to be In any sense
a dreamer of dreams Some part of her
thought slipped int speech.
NO, | am not an enthusiast he de-
MED. in reply to her charge AT bot
tom I'm only an engineer. with an ambi-
ton 10 build railroads. But | should have
learned no more than half of my trade
if couldn't tell where ii would be profit
able to build them
Never mind. you seem to have con
WINGED Uncle Sidney and the directors
finally" she commented.
NO. your uncle and the directors are
not empire huilders-meaning TO be- he
objected. They are after the present
visible dollar in a western outlet for the
Pacific Southwestern. If we reach Green
Butte before our competitors can broaden
their narrow gauge to that point We
shall have a practicable line from Chi
cago to the Pacific coast"
Il understand" she said But yours
is the higher ideal-the true American
ideal"
It's business" he asserted
We'll. isn't business the very heart and
soul of the American ideal?" she laughed
This time he laughed with her, forget
ting his troubles for the moment
II guess II is in the last analysis he