I'll sell some of my Wide West Extension and pull the thing through myself.

It's all right, but I'm sorry for you, old chap." He glanced around the room at the walls and rich paneling, and added, "I suppose that's what you have to pay for all this sort of thing ?" Before Stacy could reply, a waiting visitor was announced for the second time, and Barker, with another hand-shake and a reassuring smile to his old partner, passed into the hall, as if the onus of any infelicity in the interview was upon himself alone.

But Stacy did not seem to be in a particularly accessible mood to the new caller, who in his turn appeared to be slightly irritated by having been kept waiting over some irksome business.

"You don't seem to follow me," he said to Stacy after reciting his business perplexity.

"Can't you suggest something ?" "Well, why don't you get hold of one of your board of directors ?" said Stacy abstractedly.