"Sounds like he's trying to move in on you," Tesno said.
Ben strolled to his chair and sat down heavily. "I never cut a tunnel before. He has."
"He wants to buy your contract?"
"You could call it that. I'd lose what I've already sunk into the job—which is a fortune."
Tesno sat down and tilted his chair back against the log wall, his boot heels hooked over a rung.
"This job is do-or-die," Ben said. "I've mortgaged every horse, wagon, and harness snap I own. On top of everything else, I guaranteed the railroad I'd dig their damn tunnel in twenty-eight months. I backed up the guarantee by posting a one-hundred-thousand-dollar bond; cash money. If I hit daylight one hour late, I forfeit the bond.
"Mr. Jay offered to buy the contract for a hundred thousand, the amount of the bond. He would also take over my debts, but he'd save the cost of building the camp and a road and hauling men and equipment up here." Ben sighed, blowing upward at his kewpie-doll topknot. "He knows I'm forty days behind schedule and maybe can be tempted to pull out before I'm a complete pauper."
"Forty days!" Tesno said. "What cost you that much time?"
Ben made a sweeping gesture. "I had to build forty-five miles of mountain road. Had to build an all-weather camp. Set up an electric plant so we can light the bore with arc lamps. Got a sawmill going. Then there's the tunnel itself. Right at the exact spot marked on the map for the east portal, there was a damn waterfall. Had to move it—the waterfall. That cost me a week."
"You working from both ends toward the middle?"