Trevor shook his head.  “If the people of Alaska waited for a Government railroad, they’d die of old age and be buried where they died, for lack of transportation.  The Government owns telegraph-lines here, but it charges us five times the rates of the Western Union.  No, Miss Appleton, we’re not ready for Government ownership, and even if we were it wouldn’t affect the legality of what has been done.  Through fear that the Heidlemanns might profit this whole country has been made to stagnate.  Alaska is being depopulated; houses and stores are closed; people are leaving despondent.  Alaskans are denied self-government in any form; theories are tried at their expense, but they are never consulted.  Not only does Congress fail to enact new laws to meet their needs, but it refuses to proceed under the laws that already exist.  If the same policy had been pursued in the settlement of the Middle West that applies to this country, the buffalo would still be king of the plains and Chicago would be a frontier town.  You seem to think that coal is the most important issue up here, but it isn’t.  Transportation is what the country needs, for the main riches of Alaska are as useless to-day as if hidden away in the chasms of the moon.  O’Neil had the right idea when he selected the Salmon River route, but he made an error of judgment, and he lost.”

“He hasn’t lost!” cried Eliza, in quick defense of her friend.  “Your breakwater hasn’t been tested yet.”

“Oh, it will hold,” Trevor smiled.  “It has cost too much money not to hold.”

“Wait until the storms come,” the girl persisted.

“That’s what we’re doing, and from present indications we won’t have much longer to wait.  Weather has been breeding for several days, and the equinox is here.  Of course I’m anxious, but—­I built that breakwater, and it can’t go out.”

When O’Neil and Natalie returned they found the two still arguing.  “Haven’t you finished your tiresome discussions?” asked Natalie.

“Mr. Trevor has almost convinced me that the octopus is a noble creature, filled with high ideals and writhing at the thrusts of the muck-rakers,” Eliza told them.

But at that the engineer protested.  “No, no!” he said.  “I haven’t half done justice to the subject.  There are a dozen men in Kyak to-night who could put up a much stronger case than I. There’s McCann, for instance.  He was a prospector back in the States until he made a strike which netted him a hundred thousand dollars.  He put nearly all of it into Kyak coal claims and borrowed seventy thousand more.  He got tired of the interminable delay and finally mined a few tons which he sent out for a test in the navy.  It had better steaming qualities than the Eastern coal now being used, but six weeks later an agent of the Land Office ordered him to cease work until his title had been passed upon.  That was two years ago, and nothing has been done since.  No charges of irregularity of any sort have ever been filed against McCann or his property.  The Government has had his money for five years, and still he can’t get a ruling.  He’s broke now and too old to make a living.  He’s selling pies on the street—­”