younger man to a chair. "My daughter tells me you're an engineer," he
began.

"Yes, sir, temporarily unemployed."

"Come up here on the Nettle River project, I hear. What's the matter?
Couldn't you dam the river?"

"Oh, yes. The Nettle River presents no serious engineering problem. I
spent four months on the ground and reported it favorably, and then all
of a sudden, I was informed that the project had been abandoned, at
least for the present. The trouble, I presume, was in the financing.
It certainly was not because of any physical obstacles."

"What was the idea in building the dam in the first place?"

"Why, for power purposes. I believe it was their intention to induce
manufacturing enterprises to locate in Terrace City, and to furnish
them electric power at a low rate----"

"An' underbid me on the lightin' contract--an' then unload onto the
city at a big profit."

Wentworth smiled. "I was not advised as to the financial end of it. I
suppose, though, that that would have been the logical procedure."

Old John chuckled. "You're right, it would, with Fred Orcutt mixed up
in it. But they didn't catch me nappin', an' I slipped the word to the
city dads that I'd sell out to 'em, lock, stock, an' barrel, at a
figure that would have meant a loss to Orcutt's crowd to meet. So I'm