THE went slowly toward the door—a old man. But at the door, he paused and looked back, his lip moving tremulously.  
John sprang toward him. “What is it, sir?”
 
“I can’t—go away—not before the fifth-two weeks. Blake must give me that two weeks! You know what it means—if I go now!” His voice was harsh and he lifted his gaunt, shaking hand to the broad shoulder that bent toward him. “It’s ruin—John—for the road! I can’t do it! It’s my life!”
 
The strong hand reached up to the quivering one and drew it down, holding it fast. “You shall not go, sir. You shall stay here till the fifth—and save the road.” The low, quiet tone was full of confidence.
 
But Simeon’s voice broke across it harshly. “Blake said he would n’t give me a day—not twenty-four hours!” he said , “You should have heard him talk!” He a little.
 
“Never mind, sir,” said John. “You shall stay—if you want to.”
 
The helpless eyes his face. “I can’t!” He half whispered the words. “I’m afraid!”
 
“Listen, sir.” John’s face was close to his and a kind of power seemed to pass from the clear eyes into the wavering ones. “You shall stay if you want to.”
 
“If I want to?” repeated Simeon .
 
“Yes. Listen.” He had led him back to his chair and placed him in it. “Now I will tell you.”
 
Simply, as if to a child, John laid the plan before him. It was not something new—thought of on the spur of the moment. For weeks the youth had seen the approach of some such crisis as this and his slow mind had been making ready for it, working out the details with careful exactness. If the road could be tided over the semi-annual meeting, everything was saved. In spite of the attacks of the C. B. and L. and in spite of Simeon’s quixotic schemes for the country, there would be a comfortable to declare. And with Simeon at the head of the table—not a , but the competent, keen-witted man whom the directors knew and trusted—all would be well. After that, let get abroad—The directors would buy up any frightened stock that might be thrown on the market. There could be no attack on the road—with their confidence unshaken.
 
Simeon’s face, as he listened, lost its strained-look and his lips seemed to move to the slow words that unfolded the plan to him.
 
“You could do it?” questioned John.
 
“I could do it,” said Simeon with a deep breath. “It ’s easy—after what I have been through.”
 
“You are to do as I tell you—exactly?”
 
“There’s Blake,” said Simeon, the look of fear coming back to his face.
 
“I ’ll see Blake,” said John . “Now, you are going home to rest, sir. I ’ll write the letter to Tomlinson and then I ’m through.”
 
“Yes—yes, write the letter to Tomlinson,” said Simeon. “The sooner the better.”
 
And John, as he sat down to write it, had no glimpse of the clue that was laughing at him, to his face, while his pen moved over the paper; he had no su............