That corporation had long owed the government, no one knew how much.

It had stolen timber and stripped mountain ranges with its larcenies; also it had laid rapacious paw upon vast stretches of the public domain.

It was within the power of any committee, acting honestly, to report Northern Consolidated as in default to the government for what number of millions its indignant imagination might fix upon.

Who was to measure the road's lumber robberies, or those thefts of land?
Moreover, the vandal aggressions of Northern Consolidated made a reason for rescinding divers public grants--the present values whereof were almost too high for estimation, and without which the road could not exist--that, in its inception as a railroad, had been made it by Congress.
Senator Hanway, under Senate courtesies, would be named chairman of the special committees.

He would conduct the investigation and write the report.