A TEMPTING OFFER 5
sues to railroading. Montagne Lewis and his
crowd have got a 'plenty-big' franchise.
"They have begun laying iron. It parallels, to
a certain extent, our own line. Their surveyors
were smarter than the men who laid out the H. &
P. A. I admit it. Besides, the country out there
than it was a score of years
is developed more
ago when I took hold.
"All this enters into the fight between Montagne Lewis and me. But there is something deeper," said the little man, with almost a snarl, as he thrashed about again in his chair. "I beat Mon- tagne Lewis at one big game years ago. He is a man who never forgets-and who never hesitates to play dirty politics if he has to, to bring about his own ends.
"I know that I have been watched. I know that I was followed on this trip East. He has private detectives on my track continually. And worse. All the gunmen of the old and wilder West are not dead. There's a fellow named Andy O'Malley-well, never mind him. The game at present is to keep anybody in Lewis's em- ploy from getting wise to why I came to see you."
"What you say is interesting," Mr. Swift here broke in quietly. "But I have already been puz- zled by what you first said. first said. Just why have you Digitized by Google Original from UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
