Colonel Seth Pennington was among those who, skeptical at first and
inclined to ridicule the project into an early grave, eventually
found himself swayed by the publicity and gradually coerced into
serious consideration of the results attendant upon the building of
the road. The Colonel was naturally as suspicious as a rattlesnake in
August; hence he had no sooner emerged from the ranks of the frank
scoffers than his alert mind framed the question:
"How is this new road--improbable as I know it to be--going to affect
the interests of the Laguna Grande Lumber Company, if the unexpected
should happen and those bunco-steerers should actually build a road
from Sequoia to Grant's Pass, Oregon, and thus construct a feeder to
a transcontinental line?"
Five minutes of serious reflection sufficed to bring the Colonel to
the verge of panic, notwithstanding the fact that he was ashamed of
himself for yielding to fright despite his firm belief that there was
no reason why he should be frightened. Similar considerations occur
to a small boy who is walking home in the dark past a cemetery.
The vital aspects of his predicament dawned on the Colonel one night
at dinner, midway between the soup and the fish. So forcibly did they
occur to him, in fact, that for the nonce he forgot that his niece
was seated opposite him.
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