No, sir--not if we know it."
"You bet!" said Henry earnestly.
And it was even so. The entire council was present with the exception
of Thatcher, who was home ill. His running mate Yates was heartily in
favour of doing all and sundry of those things which would aid and
encourage the building of the much-to-be-desired railroad and offered
no objection to the motion to grant a sixty-day temporary franchise.
However, he always played ball with the absent Thatcher and he was
fairly well acquainted with his other colleagues on the council;
where they were concerned he was as suspicious as a rattlesnake in
August--in consequence of which he considered it policy to play safe
pending Thatcher's recovery. Rising in his place, he pointed out to
the board the fact that many prominent citizens who yearned for such
a road as the N. C. O. had warned him of the danger of lending
official aid and comfort to a passel of professional promoters and
fly-by-nights; that after all, the N. C. O. might merely be the
stalking-horse to a real-estate boom planned to unload the
undesirable timber holdings of the Trinidad Redwood Lumber Company,
in which event it might be well for the council to proceed with
caution. It was Mr. Yates' opinion that for the present a temporary
franchise for thirty days only should be given; if during that thirty
days the N.
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