to the fort to afford settlers reasonable security against Indian raids.
Will regarded the enterprise favorably. Besides the money sent home
each month, he had put by a small sum, and this he invested in the
partnership with Rose.

The town site was surveyed and staked off into lots; a cabin was
erected, and stocked with such goods as are needed on the frontier, and
the budding metropolis was weighted with the classic name of Rome.

As an encouragement to settlers, a lot was offered to any one that would
agree to erect a building. The proprietors, of course, reserved the
choicest lots.

Rome boomed. Two hundred cabins went up in less than sixty days.
Mr. Rose and Will shook hands and complimented each other on their
penetration and business sagacity. They were coming millionaires, they
said. Alas! they were but babes in the woods.

One day Dr. W. E. Webb alighted in Rome. He was a gentleman of most
amiable exterior, and when he entered the store of Rose & Cody they
prepared to dispose of a large bill of goods. But Dr. Webb was not
buying groceries. He chatted a while about the weather and Rome, and
then suggested that the firm needed a third partner. But this was the
last thing the prospective millionaires had in mind, and the suggestion
of their visitor was mildly but firmly waived.

Dr. Webb was not a gentleman to insist upon a suggestion. He was
locating towns for the Kansas Pacific Railroad, he said, and as Rome was
well started, he disliked to interfere with it; but, really, the company
must have a show.