"Looks like we'd _have_ to--if you get in your dam and improvements.
But that'll take money. We've looked you up, of course, and we know you
haven't it--nor any backing.... That's why we've come to see you."

"To be sure," said Scattergood. "Goin' to drive 'way to the railroad,
eh? How if there was a mill right at my dam? Shorten your drive twenty
mile, wouldn't it, eh?"

"Yes," said Keith, laughing at Scattergood's ignorance; "but how about
transportation from your mill to the railroad? We can't drive cut
lumber."

"Course not," said Scattergood, "but this valley's goin' to open up.
It's startin'. There's only one way to open a valley, and that's to run
a railroad up it.... Narrow-gauge 'u'd do here. Carry mostly lumber, but
passengers, too."

"Thinking of building one?" asked Crane, almost laughing in
Scattergood's face.

"Thinkin' don't cost nobody anythin'," said Scattergood. "Ever take a
look at that charter of mine?"

"No."

"I'll let you read it over a bit. Maybe you'll git a idea from it."

He extracted the parchment from his safe, and spread it before them.
"Kind of look careful along toward the end--in the tail feathers of it,