"By Jove, Kenneth; this comes within two inches of being a miracle!--my
catching you here before you had started West," Ford ejaculated. And
then: "When are you going back?"

"I am supposed to be on the way now," was the lawyer's reply. "I had
made all my arrangements to start back to-night on the slow train, but I
dined with some friends on the North Side and made a miss. Where have
you been?"

"I'm just in from New York. Let me register and get a room; and you put
away any lingering notion you may have of heading westward to-night.
I've got to have your ear for a few hours to begin with, and the whole
of you for the next few days. No; don't probe me here. Wait, and I'll
unload on you gradually. You won't be sorry you missed your train."

Fifteen minutes later Ford had his adviser safely behind a closed door,
and had put him succinctly in possession of the world-subverting facts,
as far as they went. When he concluded, the lawyer was shaking his head
dubiously, just as Auditor Evans had done.

"Ford, have you any adequate idea of what a tremendous proposition you
are up against?" he asked quietly, helping himself to a cigar out of the
engineer's freshly opened box.

"I don't believe I have underrated the difficulties, any of them," said
Ford, matching the attorney's gravity. "There are bones all the way
along, but I think I have struck the biggest of them just here. I ought
to be in a dozen places at once, and not later than to-morrow noon.
That's something I can't quite compass."