"That's bully for us," quoth the first assistant. "But, all the same, we shouldn't stop at Copah, this fall."
"We shall not stop at Copah," was the decisive rejoinder. "The winters on the western side of the range are much milder than they are here, and not to be spoken of in the same day with your Minnesota and Dakota stamping-ground. If we can get well out of the mountains before the heavy snows come—"
Frisbie wagged his head.
"I guess I've got it all, now—after so long a time. We merely break the record for fast railroad building—all the records—for the next six months or so. Is that about it?"
"You've surrounded it," said Ford tersely.
"Good enough: we're ready to make the break when you give the word. What are we waiting for?"
"Just at this present moment, for the contractors."
"Why, I understood you had closed with the MacMorrogh Brothers," said Frisbie.
"No. At the last moment—to relieve me of a responsibility which might give rise to charges of favoritism, as he put it—Mr. Colbrith took the bids out of my hands and carried the decision up to the executive committee. Hence, we wait; and keep a growing army of laborers here under pay while we wait," said Ford, with disgust thinly masked. Then he added: "With all due respect to Mr. Colbrith, he is simply a senile frost!"
Frisbie chuckled.