"And now I'll leave you two men, because Oskar
has promised to help me pick out a coat, and it's after ten o'clock.
And, by the way, Dad, what kind of a coat shall I get? I want a good
one."
"I'll warrant ye do! Well, just you tell Oskar to let you pick out a
pony, or a crummer, or a baum marten, or a squirrel. They're all good."
As the door closed behind his daughter, old John McNabb motioned the
younger man to a chair. "My daughter tells me you're an engineer," he
began.
"Yes, sir, temporarily unemployed."
"Come up here on the Nettle River project, I hear. What's the matter?
Couldn't you dam the river?"
"Oh, yes. The Nettle River presents no serious engineering problem. I
spent four months on the ground and reported it favorably, and then all
of a sudden, I was informed that the project had been abandoned, at
least for the present. The trouble, I presume, was in the financing.
It certainly was not because of any physical obstacles."
"What was the idea in building the dam in the first place?"
"Why, for power purposes. I believe it was their intention to induce
manufacturing enterprises to locate in Terrace City, and to furnish
them electric power at a low rate----"
"An' underbid me on the lightin' contract--an' then unload onto the
city at a big profit."
Wentworth smiled. "I was not advised as to the financial end of it.
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