“Show me,” said the auditor.

Ford hesitated for a moment.  Then he took a packet of papers, estimates, exhibits and fine-lined engineer’s maps from his pocket and tossed it across the table.

“That is for you, personally—­for David Evans; not the P. S-W. auditor.  You’ve got to keep it to yourself.”

The auditor went through the papers carefully, shifting his cigar slowly from one corner of his mouth to the other as he read and examined.  When he handed them back he was shaking his head, almost mournfully.

“It’s a big thing, Ford; the biggest kind of a thing.  And it is beautifully worked out.  But I know our people, here and in New York.  They will simply give you the cold stare and say that you are crazy.”

“Because it can’t be financed?”

“Because it doesn’t come from Hill or Harriman or Morgan, or some other one of the big captains.  You’ll never be able to stand it upon its feet by your single-handed lonesome.”

Ford set his teeth, and his clean-cut face seemed to grow suddenly older and harder as the man in him came to the fore.

“By heavens! if I put my back under it, it’s got to stand upon its feet!  I’m not going into it with the idea that there is any such thing in the book as failure.”

The auditor looked darkly into the cool gray eyes of the man facing him.

“Then let me give you a word of advice before you start in.  Skip North, absolutely; don’t breathe a word of it to him.  Don’t ask me why; but do as I say.  And another thing:  drop into my office to-morrow before you leave.  I’ll show you some figures that may help you to stir things up properly at the New York end.  Do you go direct from here?”

“No; I shall have to stop over a few days in Chicago.  I know pretty well where to put my hands on what I need; I have laid the foundations from the bottom up by correspondence.  But I want to go over the situation on the ground before I make my grand-stand play before Mr. Colbrith and the board of directors.”

“Well, come in and get the figures, anyway:  come to the private door of my office and rap three times.  It will be just as well if it isn’t generally known that you are confabbing with me.  Our semiannual report will probably be in New York ahead of you, but it won’t hurt if you have the information to work with.”  Evans was pushing his chair from the table when he added:  “By the way, you happened upon the exact psychological moment to make your raid; the report coming out, and things going to the dogs generally.”

Ford’s laugh was genially shrewd.

“Perhaps it wasn’t so much of a happening as it appears.  Didn’t I tell you that I had figured this thing out to the fourth decimal place?  Psychological moments are bigger arguments than dollars and cents, sometimes.”

The auditor had taken his hat from the waiter and was shaking hands with his dinner companion.