Arrived at Grainville, he went to the best hotel in town and registered, depositing his documents, as usual, in the office safe.
Next morning he visited the two elevator concerns he had to do business with, settled the differences without trouble, and took a call on the grain, sending his vouchers off to Chicago in the usual way.
From there he went to other important grain centers in Kansas, where the balance of his options were to be settled, closing up that part of the business finally in Jayville, Missouri.
“There, that winds up the option business,” he remarked with an air of relief as he registered the last of his vouchers for Chicago.
Consulting his letter of instructions, he found that he had to proceed to a town called Elevatorville, on the Mississippi, facing the State of Kentucky.
The branch railroad that connected the place with the nearest trunk line was a rocky affair, and had fallen into the hands of a receiver owing to a default in the interest on its first mortgage bonds.
Evidently transportation business had fallen off badly in that section.
Vance made cautious inquiries at the junction as to whether much grain had passed over the branch road lately, but nobody seemed to know anything about the matter.
The regular station agent was sick in bed, and the substitute assured Vance that there was nothing doing in that line.
The boy took the late afternoon train for Elevatorville, arriving at the town long after dark.