He was reminded, as he talked about all this with Lucy, of a project
which had been mooted some ten or twelve years ago, to extend the
line from Atkin so as to connect with the plant of the Mississippi
Steel Company, and give that concern a direct outlet toward the
west. The Mississippi Steel Company had one of the half dozen
largest plate and rail mills in the country, and the idea of
directing even a small portion of its enormous freight was one which
had incessantly tantalised the minds of the directors of the
Northern Mississippi.

They had gone so far as to conduct a survey, and to make a careful
estimate of the cost of the proposed extension. Montague knew about
this, because it had chanced that he, together with Lucy's brother,
who was now in California, had spent part of his vacation on a
hunting trip, during which they had camped near the surveying party.
The proposed line had to find its way through the Talula swamps, and
here was where the uncertainty of the project came in. There were a
dozen routes proposed, and Montague remembered how he had sat by the
campfire one evening, and got into conversation with one of the
younger men of the party, and listened to his grumbling about the
blundering of the survey. It was his opinion that the head-surveyor
was incompetent, that he was obstinately rejecting the best routes
in favour of others which were almost impossible.

Montague had taken this gossip to his father, but he did not know
whether his father had ever looked into the matter. He only knew
that when the project for the proposed extension had been brought up
at a stockholders' meeting, the cost of the work was found so great
that it was impossible to raise the money. A proposal to go to the
Mississippi Steel Company was voted down, because Mississippi Steel