Empire Builders | Page 8

dickens you guessed all that. But no matter;
supposing I did?"
"It's no good," said the auditor, shaking his head. "I'm talking as a
friend. North doesn't like you, personally; and if he did, you couldn't
persuade him to recommend anything in the way of an experiment on
the Plug Mountain. So far from extending your two-by-four branch--if
that is what you have in mind--he'd be much more likely to counsel its
abandonment, if the charter didn't require us to keep it going."
Ford found a cigar for the auditor, and lighted one for himself.
"From all of which I infer that the semiannual report of the Pacific
Southwestern is going to be a pretty bad one," he said, with carefully
assumed indifference.
Evans regarded him shrewdly.
"Are you guessing at that? Or is there a leak at our end of the line as
well as at yours?"
"Oh, it's a guess," laughed Ford. "Call it that, anyhow. At least, I
haven't any of your confidential clerks in my pay. But just how bad is
the report going to be?"
The auditor shook his head.
"Worse than the last one. Perhaps you have noticed that the stock has
dropped six points in the past week. You're one of the official family: I
don't mind telling you that we are in the nine-hole, Ford."
"Of course we are," said Ford, with calm conviction. "That much is
pretty evident to a man who merely reads the Wall Street news
bulletins. What is the matter with us--specifically, I mean?"
Evans shrugged.
"Are you a division superintendent on the system and don't know?" he
demanded. "We are too short at both ends. With our eastern terminal

only half-way to Chicago, we can't control the east-bound grain which
grows on our own line; and with the other end stopping short here at
Denver, we can't bid for west-bound transcontinental business. It's as
simple as twice two. Our competitors catch us going and coming."
"Precisely. And if we don't get relief?"
The auditor smiled grimly.
"As I've said, you're one of us, Ford, and I don't mind speaking freely
to you. A receivership is looming in the distance, and the not very dim
distance, for the P. S-W."
"I thought so. How near is it?"
"I don't know--nobody knows definitely. If we had a man of resources
at the head of things--as we have not--it might be stood off for another
six months."
"I'm on the way to stand it off permanently, if I can get any backing,"
said Ford quietly.
"You!" was the astonished reply.
"Yes, I. Listen, Evans. For two years I have been buried up yonder in
the hills, with not enough to do in the summer season to keep me out of
mischief. I am rather fond of mathematics, and I am telling you I have
this thing figured out to the fourth decimal. If President Colbrith and
his associates can be made to see that the multiplication of two by two
gives an invariable resultant of four, there will be no receivership for
the P. S-W. this year, or next."
"Show me," said the auditor.
Ford hesitated for a moment. Then he took a packet of papers,
estimates, exhibits and fine-lined engineer's maps from his pocket and
tossed it across the table.
"That is for you, personally--for David Evans; not the P. S-W. auditor.

You've got to keep it to yourself."
The auditor went through the papers carefully, shifting his cigar slowly
from one corner of his mouth to the other as he read and examined.
When he handed them back he was shaking his head, almost
mournfully.
"It's a big thing, Ford; the biggest kind of a thing. And it is beautifully
worked out. But I know our people, here and in New York. They will
simply give you the cold stare and say that you are crazy."
"Because it can't be financed?"
"Because it doesn't come from Hill or Harriman or Morgan, or some
other one of the big captains. You'll never be able to stand it upon its
feet by your single-handed lonesome."
Ford set his teeth, and his clean-cut face seemed to grow suddenly older
and harder as the man in him came to the fore.
"By heavens! if I put my back under it, it's got to stand upon its feet!
I'm not going into it with the idea that there is any such thing in the
book as failure."
The auditor looked darkly into the cool gray eyes of the man facing
him.
"Then let me give you a word of advice before you start in. Skip North,
absolutely; don't breathe a word of it to him. Don't ask me why; but do
as I say. And another thing: drop into my office to-morrow before you
leave.