The people smugly regarded themselves as safe in the hands of the miserly but honest old financier.
If he accomplished many things by way of office to enhance his own particular fortune, no one looked askance, for he made no effort to blind or deceive his people.

Of his honesty there could be no question; of his financial operations, it is enough to say that the people were satisfied to have their affairs linked with his.
The financing of the great railroad project by which Edelweiss was to be connected with the Siberian line in the north, fell to his lot at a time when no one else could have saved the little government from heavy losses or even bankruptcy.

The new line traversed the country from Serros, capital of Dawsbergen, through the mountains and canyons of Graustark, across Axphain's broad steppes and lowlands, to a point at which Russia stood ready to begin a connecting branch for junction with her great line to the Pacific.

All told, it was a stupendous undertaking for a small government to finance; it is well known that Graustark owns and controls her public utility institutions.

The road, now about half completed, was to be nearly two hundred miles in length, fully two-thirds of which was on Graustark territory.