“All right, Gail,” he said laconically.
She felt suddenly weary, but she rose and joined him. When she slipped her hand in his arm, strong, and warm, and pulsing, she was aware of a thrill from it, but the thrill was just restfulness.
“You look a little tired,” judged the practical Allison, as they strolled, side by side, into the hall, and he patted the slender hand which lay on his arm.
“Not very,” she lightly replied, and unconsciously she snuggled her hand more comfortably into its resting place. A little sigh escaped her lips, deep-drawn and fluttering. It was a sigh of content.
CHAPTER XI
“GENTLEMEN, THERE IS YOUR EMPIRE!”
The seven quiet gentlemen who sat with Allison at his library table, followed the concluding flourish of his hand toward the map on the wall, and either nodded or blinked appreciatively. The red line on his map was complete now, a broad, straight line from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and to it were added, on either side, irregular, angling red lines like the legs of a centipede, the feeders of the various systems which were under control of the new Atlantic-Pacific Railroad.
“That’s a brilliant piece of engineering, Allison,” observed huge Richard Haverman, by way of pleasant comment, and he glanced admiringly at Allison after his eye had roved around the little company of notables. The feat of bringing these seven men together at a specific hour, was greater than having consolidated the brilliant new Atlantic-Pacific Railroad.
“Let’s get to the details,” barked a voice with the volume of a St. Bernard. It came from Arthur Grandin, the head of the Union Fuel Company, which controlled all the wood and coal in the United States, and all the oil in the world. His bald spot came exactly on a level with the back of his chair, and he wore a fierce moustache.
“I’m putting in the Atlantic-Pacific as my share of the pool, gentlemen,” explained Allison. “My project, as I have told you, is to make this the main trunk, the vertebræ as it were, of the International Transportation Company. I have consolidated with the A.-P. the Municipal Transportation Company, and I have put my entire fortune in it, to lay it on the table absolutely unencumbered.”
He threw down the Atlantic-Pacific Railroad and the Municipal Transportation Company in the form of a one sheet typewritten paper.