Greatly regret events of to-day but am unshakenly confident for the future, given sufficient time to remedy defect in rails which should not take long. Chemical analyses show too high carbon and this can be rectified. Now awaiting remittance for payroll. Wimperley read it without a trace of accentuation, while Stoughton got up and stared, as once before, at the sky line of Philadelphia. "Well," drawled Birch dryly, "we've heard from our prophet." "He's got more confidence in our future than we have in his past," put in Riggs. Stoughton turned, "What about the payroll?" "If you have a million or so to spare, we'll send it up. There's more to be met than the payroll." The voice was a trifle insulting, but Stoughton did not notice it, and Birch went on. "There's just one thing we can do, if we can't get money to run." "Well?" jerked out Riggs, "say it." "Shut down." Wimperley's long fingers were drumming the table. He did not fancy himself as the president of a great company in whose works not a wheel was turning. "I'd like to find some other way out of it. There's going to be hell to pay here, but--" "Perhaps the ingenious gentleman at St. Marys could help out," said Birch acidly. At that came a little silence and there appeared the vision of Clark in his office, with his achievements dissolving before his eyes. "Robert Fisher is no financier," struck in Stoughton wearily. Wimperley smiled in spite of himself. "Perhaps not, but he mesmerized us into that office. There's only one thing I can see--issue debentures secured by first mortgage." "Who'll take 'em? We used up all our arguments long ago. Philadelphia doesn't want a mortgage on Robert Fisher, and what about the Pennsylvania farmer?" "What about him?" asked Wimperley pettishly. "As I know him, he's a bad loser--he works too hard for it. This is a case of new money from outside, and I for one don't feel like doing any traveling." "In other words we've demonstrated that whether or not by any fault of ours, we've made a mess of it," said Stoughton with utter candor. "Something remarkably like it." "And when Clark told us, months ago, that he wouldn't draw any salary, and that a lot of others were only drawing half salary to help out till the rail mill got going, we should have made provision for possible mistakes, and seen as well that we were getting in over our ears." "But Clark believed all he told us," piped Riggs with a flash of loyalty. "Of course he did, and he still does, and because he is still only twenty years ahead of his time he's all the more dangerous." "Let's get back to this payroll," blurted Stoughton who was getting more and more uncomfortable.