or the ore to the coal. Through three gaps water flowed between
ore and coal and the very hills between were limestone. Was there
any such juxtaposition of the four raw materials for the making of
iron in the known world? When he got that far in his logic, the
sweat broke from his brows; he felt dizzy and he got up and walked
into the open air. As the vastness and certainty of the scheme--
what fool could not see it?--rushed through him full force, he
could scarcely get his breath. There must be a town in one of
those gaps--but in which? No matter--he would buy all of them--all
of them, he repeated over and over again; for some day there must
be a town in one, and some day a town in all, and from all he
would reap his harvest. He optioned those four gaps at a low
purchase price that was absurd. He went back to the Bluegrass; he
went to New York; in some way he managed to get to England. It had
never crossed his mind that other eyes could not see what he so
clearly saw and yet everywhere he was pronounced crazy. He failed
and his options ran out, but he was undaunted. He picked his
choice of the four gaps and gave up the other three. This
favourite gap he had just finished optioning again, and now again
he meant to keep at his old quest. That gap he was entering now
from the north side and the North Fork of the river was hurrying
to enter too. On his left was a great gray rock, projecting
edgewise, covered with laurel and rhododendron, and under it was
the first big pool from which the stream poured faster still.
There had been a terrible convulsion in that gap when the earth
was young; the strata had been tossed upright and planted almost
vertical for all time, and, a little farther, one mighty ledge,
moss-grown, bush-covered, sentinelled with grim pines, their bases
unseen, seemed to be making a heavy flight toward the clouds.