Urbank glanced at the slip, then he looked up at Allison in perplexity. He had a funny forward angle to his neck when he was interested, and the creases in his brow were deepened until they looked like cuts.
“I thought you were joking, and I’m still charitable enough to think so. What’s all this junk?”
“Little remnants and job lots of railroads I’ve been picking up,” and Allison drew forward his chair. “Some I bought outright, and in some I hold control.”
“If you’re serious about interesting the Midcontinent in any of this property, we don’t need to waste much time.” Urbank leaned back and held his knee. “There are only two of these roads approach the Midcontinent system at any point, and they are useless property so far as we are concerned; the L. and C., in the east, and the Silverknob and Nugget City, in the west, which touches our White Range branch at its southern terminus. We couldn’t do anything with those.”
“You landed on the best ones right away,” smiled Allison. “However, I don’t propose to sell these to the Midcontinent. I propose to absorb the Midcontinent with them.”
Urbank suddenly remembered Allison’s traction history, and leaned forward to look at the job lots and remnants again.
“This list isn’t complete,” he judged, and turned to Allison with a serious question in his eye.
“Almost,” and Allison hitched a little closer to the desk. “There remains an aggregate of three hundred and twenty miles of road to be built in four short stretches. In addition to this, I have a twenty year contract over a hundred mile stretch of the Inland Pacific, a track right entry into San Francisco, and this,” and he displayed to Urbank a preliminary copy of an ordinance, authorising the immediate building of an eight track tube through Crescent Island to the mainland. “Possibly you can understand this whole project better if I show you a map,” and he spread out his little pocket sketch.
If it had been possible to reverse the processes of time and worry and wearing concentration, President Urbank, of the Midcontinent, would have raised from his inspection of that map with a brow as smooth as a baby’s. Instead, his lips went dry, as he craned forward his neck at that funny angle, and projected his chin with the foolish motion of a goose.
“A direct entrance right slam into the centre of New York!” he exclaimed, cracking all his knuckles violently one by one. “Vedder Court! Where’s that?”