“Jest a minute, Mr. Castle,” he said. “’Tain’t time for you to cuss yet.  Maybe you won’t git to do no reg’lar cussin’ a-tall.  You see, McKettrick he up and made a little error himself.  Regardin’ me makin’ an error.  Yass....  I don’t calc’late to make errors costin’ upward of a hunderd thousand.  No....  Not,” he said, “that I got any doubts about the word ‘westerly’ appearin’ in all the papers McKettrick’s got regardin’ this enterprise.  What I doubt some is whether the word ‘westerly’ was there right from the start off of the beginnin’.  In other words, it looks to me kind of as if McKettrick had done a mite of fixin’ up to them documents.  Rubbin’ out and writin’ in, so to speak.”

“Fiddlesticks!” said McKettrick.  “Of course that is what you would charge.”

“McKettrick,” said Scattergood, “did you figger I’d take notes in lead pencil on my cuff of where I was to build that railroad?  Did you figger I was goin’ to lay down a railroad without knowin’ the place I put it was where it b’longed?  Castle he knows me better ’n you, and he wouldn’t guess I’d do sich a thing.  No, sir, Mr. McKettrick.  I took them original papers out of your office for jest a day, and bein’ as they constituted an easement on land, I got ’em recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds.  Paid reg’lar money in fees to have it done.  And who you think I got to compare the records with the original in case somethin’ come up, eh?  Why, the circuit jedge of this county and the prosecutin’ attorney—­they both bein’ personal and political friends of mine....  That’s what I done, and if you’ll search them records you’ll find the word ‘easterly’ standin’ cool and ca’m in every place where it ought to be....  So, if you’re figgerin’ on litigation, I guess maybe we’ll litigate, eh?”

“These are the references to the records,” said Johnnie Bones, laying a memorandum on the table.  “You’ll find them correct.”

“Knowing Baines as I do,” said President Castle, “I’m satisfied.”

McKettrick and his attorney were conversing in hoarse whispers.  McKettrick looked like a man who had come out of a warm bath into a cold-storage room.  He was speechless, but his lawyer spoke for him.

“You win,” he said, succinctly.

“Always calc’late to when I kin,” said Scattergood.  “Now, don’t hurry, gentlemen.  I got another leetle matter to call to your attention.  McKettrick there’s got forty-nine per cent of the stock in the railroad that’s built where it ought to be, and Castle’s got another forty-nine per cent.  That leaves two men with all but two per cent of the stock, and neither of them in control.  If I know them men they hain’t apt to git together and agree peaceable and reasonable.  Therefore, the feller that has the remainin’ two per cent of the stock, or forty shares, stands perty clost to controllin’ the corporation, eh?  Him votin’ with either of the forty-nine per cents?  Sounds that way, don’t it?...  And I got that two per cent....  Do I hear any suggestions?”