country. Everything was working smoothly, better than I had
expected. At Blind Indian Lake we had a shipyard, two warehouses,
ice-houses, a company store, and a population of three hundred,
and had nearly completed a ten-mile roadbed for narrow-gauge
steel, which would connect us with the main line when it came up
to us. I was completely lost in my work. At times I almost forgot
Brokaw and the others. I was particularly careful of the funds
sent up to me, and had accomplished my work at a cost of a little
under a hundred thousand. At the end of the six months, when I was
about to make a visit into the south, one of our warehouses and
ten thousand dollars' worth of supplies went up in smoke. It was
our first misfortune, and it was a big one. It was about the first
matter that I brought up after I had shaken hands with Brokaw."

Philip's face was set and white as he stood in the middle of the
room looking at Gregson.

"And what do you think was his reply, Greggy? He looked at me for
a moment, a peculiar twitching around the corners of his mouth,
and then said, 'Don't allow a trivial matter like that to worry
you, Philip. Why--we've already cleaned up a million on this
little fish deal!'"

Gregson sat up with a jerk.

"A million! Great Scott--"

"Yes, a million, Greggy," said Philip, softly, with his old
fighting smile. "There was a hundred thousand dollars to my credit
in a First National Bank. Pleasant surprise, eh?"