Poundstone squirmed.  “I should not care, at this time, to go on record,” he replied evasively.  “When I have had time to look into the matter more thoroughly—­”

“Tut-tut, my dear man!  Let us not straddle the fence.  Business is a game, and so is politics.  Neither knows any sentiment.  Suppose you should favour this N.C.O. crowd in a mistaken idea that you were doing the right thing, and that subsequently numberless fellow-citizens developed the idea that you had not done your public duty?  Would some of them not be likely to invoke a recall election and retire you and your city council—­in disgrace?”

“I doubt if they could defeat me, Colonel.”

“I have no such doubt,” Pennington replied pointedly.

Poundstone looked up at him from under lowered lids.  “Is that a threat?” he demanded tremulously.

“My dear fellow!  Threaten my guest!” Pennington laughed patronizingly.  “I am giving you advice, Poundstone—­and rather good advice, it strikes me.  However, while we’re on the subject, I have no hesitancy in telling you that in the event of a disastrous decision on your part, I should not feel justified in supporting you.”

He might, with equal frankness, have said:  “I would smash you.”  To his guest his meaning was not obscure.  Poundstone studied the pattern of the rug, and Pennington, watching him sharply, saw that the man was distressed.  Then suddenly one of those brilliant inspirations, or flashes of rare intuition, which had helped so materially to fashion Pennington into a captain of industry, came to him.  He resolved on a bold stroke.

“Let’s not beat about the bush, Poundstone,” he said with the air of a father patiently striving to induce his child to recant a lie, tell the truth, and save himself from the parental wrath.  “You’ve been doing business with Ogilvy; I know it for a fact, and you might as well admit it.”

Poundstone looked up, red and embarrassed.  “If I had known—­” he began.

“Certainly, certainly!  I realize you acted in perfect good faith.  You’re like the majority of people in Sequoia.  You’re all so crazy for rail-connection with the outside world that you jump at the first plan that seems to promise you one.  Now, I’m as eager as the others, but if we are going to have a railroad, I, for one, desire the right kind of railroad; and the N.C.O. isn’t the right kind—­that is, not for the interests I represent.  Have you promised Ogilvy a franchise?”

There was no dodging that question.  A denial, under the present circumstances, would be tantamount to an admission; Poundstone could not guess just how much the Colonel really knew, and it would not do to lie to him, since eventually the lie must be discovered.  Caught between the horns of a dilemma, Poundstone only knew that Ogilvy could never be to him such a powerful enemy as Colonel Seth Pennington; so, after the fashion of his kind, he chose the lesser of two evils.  He resolved to “come clean.”