When, therefore, the Northern
California Oregon Railroad commenced to encroach on the Colonel's
time-appropriation for sleep, he realized that there was but one way
in which to conserve his rest and that was by engaging to fathom the
mystery for him a specialist in the unravelling of mysteries. In
times gone by, the Colonel had found a certain national detective-
agency an extremely efficient aid to well-known commercial agencies,
and to these tried and true subordinates he turned now for explicit
and satisfying information anent the Northern California Outrage!
The information forthcoming from Dun's and Bradstreet's was vague and
unsatisfying. Neither of these two commercial agencies could
ascertain anything of interest regarding the finances of the N. C. O.
For the present the corporation had no office, its destinies in San
Francisco being guarded by a well-known attorney who had declined to
make any statement regarding the company but promised one at an early
date. The board of directors consisted of this attorney, his two
assistants, his stenographer, and Mr. Buchanan Ogilvy. The company
had been incorporated for five million dollars, divided into five
million shares of par value of one dollar each, and five shares had
been subscribed! Both agencies forwarded copies of the articles of
incorporation, but since the Colonel had already read this document
in the Sequoia Sentinel, he was not further interested.
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