"Yes, sir; I understand that. Their cargo is mostly coal, is it not?"
"It is."
"For ports all along the Great Lakes?"
"Certainly."
"And through carrying this coal your ships lose from a week to ten days and some times two weeks' on every round trip."
"How do you know this?" interrupted Mr. Carrhart.
"I have asked questions," smiled Steve. "Call it a week's loss of time on each trip. Do you know what that means?"
"I begin to see," answered the president reflectively.
"It means that every time your fleet makes a round trip, carrying coal back with them, the company loses their services to the enormous total of two hundred and ten weeks, more than four years, Mr. Carrhart. If you will glance over these figures of mine you will observe that, by this method, the company is losing about the figure stated by me a few minutes ago, over and above what you get in freights for carrying the coal."
The president made a few brief calculations. He went over his figures and Steve's several times, his forehead corrugated with deep wrinkles as he did so. At last Mr. Carrhart glanced up, gazing steadily at the slightly flushed face of the Iron Boy.