Instead of answering, she asked another question:
"Is he interested in the company you spoke of, that is building a line from Memphis to the Ohio River?"
"Yes. He's heavily in that. Indeed, he is president of it, I believe, or something like that, just as he is of our company—well, no, the parallel doesn't hold, for ours is only a projecting company, as yet, while that is a full-fledged railroad company actually engaged in building. I suppose that is one of the things that tied Tandy up at the time of the bank trouble. He had put a pot of money into it, and he could neither sell his stock nor raise money on it till the road should be finished and in operation. But why do you ask about that, Barbara?"
For answer, she crossed the room, and returning, spread out a map on a table.
"Look!" she said, putting her finger on the map. "At a point only a little east of that county line concerning which Tandy got the strange stipulation made, our proposed line will be much nearer to Paducah than the distance from that point to Cairo. May it not be possible——"
"By Jove, Barbara!" Duncan exclaimed, as he bent over the map, "you've solved the riddle. What a splendid combination it is! And how we must hustle to defeat it!"
"You must be calm, then, and let us work it all out, and be sure of everything before you tell Captain Will about it. I want you to have full credit for the timely discovery."
"Me? Why, it is all yours, Barbara, and you are to have all the credit of it."
"Oh, no. You told me the things that enabled me to guess it out, and I've only been trying to help you. I'm glad if I have helped, but positively my name mustn't be mentioned. I'm only a woman!"
"Only a woman!" Duncan echoed. "Only a woman! Barbara, God's wisdom was never so wise as when he created 'only a woman' to be a 'helpmeet for man.'"