"I did--by the very simple method of preparing to get there first in
case anything slipped. Something did slip--last night! However, I was
ready; so all I had to do was press the button, for as Omar Khayyam
remarked: 'What shall it avail a man if he buyeth a padlock for his
stable after his favourite stallion hath been lifted?' Several days
ago, my boy, I wrote a long letter to our attorney in San Francisco
explaining every detail of our predicament; the instant I received
that temporary franchise from the city council, I mailed a certified
copy of it to our attorney also. Then, in anticipation of our
discovery by Pennington, I instructed the attorney to prepare the
complaint and petition for a restraining order against Seth
Pennington et al. and stand by to rush the judge with it the instant
he heard from me!
"Well, about the time old Pennington started for San Francisco this
morning, I had our attorney out of bed and on the long-distance
telephone; at nine o'clock this morning he appeared in the United
States District Court; at nine-fifteen the judge signed a restraining
order forbidding our enemies to interfere with us in the exercise of
a right legally granted us by the city of Sequoia, and at nine-thirty
a deputy United States marshal started in an automobile for Sequoia,
via the overland route.
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