Dan had the feeling that he should never see him again, and the pathos of his age and dependence tore his heart. In a manner, too, he blamed himself for the tragedy. It might have been averted had he said less about Ryder in his father's hearing. He should have known better than to discuss the strike with him. One morning, as he left Holloway's office, he chanced to meet an acquaintance by the name of Curtice. They had been together in Denver years before, and he had known him as a rather talkative young fellow, with large hopes and a thrifty eye to the main chance. But he was the one man he would have preferred to meet, for he had been in South America and knew the field there. Apparently Curtice was equally glad to see him. He insisted upon carrying him off to his club to lunch, where it developed he was in a state of happy enthusiasm over his connection with a road that had just gone into the hands of a receiver, and a new baby, which he assured Oakley on the spur of the moment he was going to name after him. “You see, Oakley,” he explained, as they settled themselves, “I was married after you left to a girl who had come to Denver with a consumptive brother. They boarded at the same place I did.” His companion was properly interested. “Look here, how long are you going to be in the city? I want you to come and see us.” Dan avoided committing himself by saying his stay in Chicago was most uncertain. He might have to leave very soon. “Well, then, you must drop in at my office. I wish you'd make it your headquarters while you are here.” “What about the road you are with?” “Oh, the road! We are putting it in shape.” Oakley smiled a trifle skeptically. He recalled that even as a very young man filling a very subordinate position, Curtice had clung to the “we.” Curtice saw the smile and remembered too. “Now, see here, I'm giving it to you straight. I really am the whole thing. I've got a greenhorn for a boss, whose ignorance of the business is only equalled by his confidence in me. If you want to be nasty you can say his ignorance is responsible for much of his confidence. I've been told that before.” “Then I'll wait. I may be able to think of something better.” “There are times when I wonder if he really knows the difference between an engine's head-light and a coupling-pin. He's giving me all the rope I want, and we'll have a great passenger service when I get done. That's what I am working on now.” “But where are you going to get the funds for it? A good service costs money,” said Dan. “Oh, the road's always made money. That was the trouble.” Oakley looked dense. He had heard of such things, but they had been outside of his own experience.