The lawyer’s comment was frankly praiseful, not to say flattering.

“You’re a wonder, Ford—­and that’s no figure of speech.  How on earth did you manage to do it all at such long range?”

Ford’s smile was reminiscent of the obstacles.

“It would take me all night to tell you in detail, Kenneth.  But I did it.  It’s no mere brag to say that I could walk into the Chicago, Peoria & Davenport general offices here to-morrow morning and organize a through service over the P. S-W. and the three stub lines within twenty-four hours, if I had to.”

“Well, that part of it is far enough beyond me,” said the attorney.  “The stock-chasing is more in my line.  I hope we can keep quiet enough about it so that the opposition won’t guess what we are trying to do.  You’re sure it won’t be given away from the New York end?”

It was the engineer’s turn to shake his head and to look dubious.

“Now you are shouting, Kenneth.  I can’t tell anything about it.  You’ll remember that when I left New York the board had turned the plan down, definitely and permanently, as I supposed.  I should say that our only safety lies in lightning speed.  When you get the options on those controlling stock majorities snugly on deposit in the Algonquin National, we can draw our first long breath.  Isn’t that about the way it strikes you?”

“It is, precisely,” agreed the general counsel, rising and finding his hat.  “And because it does strike me that way, I think I’ll go down and do a little telegraphing to-night.”

“Hold on a minute,” said Ford, “and I’ll give you a message to take down, if you don’t mind.  I must answer Adair, and it won’t do any harm to prod him a little—­on the secrecy side.”

Kenneth waited, with his hand on the door-knob, as it chanced.  Hence the opening of the door a minute or two later was quite without any preliminary stir of warning in the room of conference.  That was possibly the reason why the lawyer almost fell over a man crouching in the corridor.

“Hello, there!” said Kenneth; “I beg your pardon.”

The man got upon his feet, exhibiting all the signs of intoxication.

“Beg yoursh, I’m sure,” he mumbled, and was lurching crookedly away when the lawyer suddenly came to his senses and grabbed at him.  The clutching hand fell short, and there was an agile foot-race down the corridor, fruitless for Kenneth, since the fugitive suddenly developed sobriety enough to run like a deer.  Beaten in the foot-race, Kenneth went back for a word with Ford.

“The battle is on,” was the form the word took.  “There was a man here, listening at the key-hole, when I opened the door.  How much he overheard we’ll be likely to find out to-morrow when we begin to pull the strings.  Thought I’d give you the pointer.  Good night, again.”

VIII

THE AUTOMATIC AIR