106 DEEP FURROWS 



enable them to escape a big item in storage charges and 

 to place the grain in line for export at rates consider- 

 ably below the all-rail figures. 



" With those bills of lading in the bank, we've no 

 control of them and the bank can do just about as it 

 likes," reviewed the President one night. "If they should 

 come down on us to sell our wheat inside of forty-eight 

 hours we're goners, boys ! All that those fellows over 

 at the Exchange have got to do is to shove down the 

 market thirty points and our name is mud! The loss 

 to the farmers who've shipped us their grain will kill 

 this movement and every one like it in the West for all 

 time to come. This company will be as dead as a door- 

 nail and so will we financially as its bonded backers." 



Kennedy was running a finger tentatively down the 

 window-pane. It left a streak in the forming frost. 



" What I want to know is, how long ought it to take 

 to load up this whole boatload we're trying to move?" 



" Oh, about seventeen hours or so." 



" And how long have they been at it already ? Five 

 days, ain't it? And she's not away yet! What d'you 

 suppose that means ?" he snapped. He began to throw 

 things into a grip. He made for the door. 



" Where'n the mischief are you going, John ?" 



" Fort William can just make the train if I hustle. 

 The J. P. Walsh gets out of that harbor with that wheat 

 of ours, by Hickory ! if she has to be chopped out with 

 an axe!" 



Two days later a telegram reached the little office : 



8.8. J. P. Walsh cleared to-day for Buffalo. Three 

 hundred and ten thousand bushels. Last boat out. 



KENNEDY. 



