The president was turned aside but not stopped.
"I understand," he objected raucously. "But your expense bills are something tremendous; tre-mendous, Mr. Ford! You have spent more money in three months than we spent in a full year on the main line."
"Quite likely," agreed Ford, losing interest in the pointless discussion. "But with us, time is an object; and we have the results to show for the expenditure."
At this, Mr. Colbrith took refuge in innuendo, as seemed to be his lately acquired habit.
"You are very ready with your answers, Mr. Ford; very ready, indeed. Let us see if you can continue as you have begun."
It was Miss Alicia who resented this final speech of the president's when the buckboards were once more in motion, following the unrailed grade around the swelling shoulders of the huge hills.
"I think that last remark of Uncle Sidney's was rather uncalled for," she said, after Ford had driven in grim silence at the tail of the procession for a full mile.
"It is one of a good many uncalled for things he has been saying to me since the day before yesterday," was Ford's rejoinder.
"Yet you can still assure me that you are not vindictive."
"I am not—at the mere actors in the play. But I confess to an unholy desire to get back at the prompter—the stage manager of the little comedy. I am only waiting for your decision."