The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-31
(Continued.)

own accord, expressed his enthusiasm for the plan and asked for a share in the holdings. You know perhaps how he can laugh too. Well, he laughed that way and confessed that we had just beaten him to it. He said it would tap gold mine-this strip of steel, as he called it. He even told US that he'd parallel our road with a com petitor, jokingly to be sure, if we hadn't tied up the only available and practicable right of way.
 He came in. He opened up, merely through his own name and all there is behind it, loan possibilities for which We might have struggled uselessly the rest of our lives without his help. Be- tween US Mir. Ainnesley and just man. aged to hold the balance of stock con- trol and-and that's how deep we are in, Mfr. O'Mara."
 Both men sat ahd smoked, each avoiding elaborately the others eyes, After a long pause Elliott cleared his throat laboriously.
 "This morning." he continued slow ly-"this mornfng1 am in receipt of a communication from MT. rAinnesley himself advising me that another right of way has been applied for for a sin gle track road here in the north. The gossip which chanced to come his way was rather Obscure. Little could be learned about the whole affair save that it was being put forward with a view to tapping the ore and timber lands all the way to and beyond the border. But as nearly as he could as- certain the southern terminus of such a road would seem to be about-about at the mouth of that valley southern most in the Reserve company's timber holdings. Rather a remarkable choice for a railroad terminus, MT. O'Mara, wouldn't you say .so?"
 "Do you mean that they've thrown out your earlier application for just such a grant?'
 'That would be rather harshly definite way of putting it." Elliott smil- ed wryly. Ours is apparently just ta- bled-oh, tabled pending certain i'm material changes in the form! You asked me a moment ago-or did I offer to guess ?-who might be responsible for the report which is costing us our men, I wonder if I need to tell you who controls this new northern route?"
 Maybe you've been telling me|' Steve came back cooIy. You have already mentioned''-
 "Wickersham" Hardwick Elliott cor rected. "Wickersham-that is, through allied interests which he represents or controls. O'A1ara, doubt if I would even insinuate this to any one else; 1 haven't even intimated it to Ainnesley as yet. Wiekersham is reputed to rep resent huge moneyed foreign interests. But have you ever stopped to wonder whether he might not represent big To- cal interests as well? I'd like to ask you-what do you thinkr'
 "Yesterday,' Steve answered. "yes- terday-wen, I couldn't guarantee just what I might have thought twenty four hours back But doesn't one fact remain unchanged still, no matter what we think? Suppose we admit that some one else does want this stretch of track we're laying. Suppose some body is figuring on picking 1t up cheap at a bankruptcy price if we forfeit to the Reserve company. You know yourself that you wceld ,2ever have begun it simply for the profit there will be in moving the Reserve logs and the millions on millions of feet of lumber, both to the east and west, which can't be touched at anything but a prohibi- tive figure without this road. We were going through to the border tod. And if some one else is betting that we don't, if some one else is betting that we can't yank a trainload of logs down to this end of the line before the 1st of May, that doesn't alter our case any, does 1t? Even though we suspect that some man Is playing US to lose, do we have to know exactly who he is?'
 Slowly, but very surely, the older mans face began to smooth.
 'Once or twice." he stated, i've thought to anticipate you, perhaps be- cause have it on you little, as they say, in the matter of years I'm not going to attempt it any more, for thought that this conversation would be at least a surprise to you. You sit there and take it very quietly for . man who has been badly startled"
 Eat Joe has been preaching it for month" Oddly enough, Stephen O'AIara chose that point at which to laugh softly. And I. for a month, have been ridiculing him. That's one of Fat Joe's pet diversions, you know. When all other excitement fails Joe invariably falls back upon an imagina- tion too totally vivid to be wasted on technical things. I laughed at him un- til last night. Do you-but, of course, you know Garry Devereau?" he fin- ished.
 "Knew his father" Elliott answered succinctly. "Know him we'll Good blood, good brains, big heart! Why?
 And then for the second time that day Steve related the salient points of that episode which had ended with the first gray streaks of returning day. During the recital the expressions which chased across Elliott's face were as varied as they were full of concern.