Luke reread the telegram from Jay Cooke. His employer was more than a little pleased at the changes to the route and all the money it had saved them in the long run. He praised Luke for taking the initiative to get another engineer’s opinion. But Luke couldn’t take the credit and began to pen a personal letter to Cooke.

I cannot take credit for this. In truth, I believe it was meant to harm us, but God took what was meant for evil and used it for good. I have my suspicions as to who was responsible but haven’t yet collected the proof. I assure you that I am seeking the truth and will share this news with you as soon as I have it.

He paused and put the pen aside. If Theodore was to blame as he suspected, Luke was clueless as to why. He had been a good secretary—attentive to every detail. Obviously, now Luke could surmise that that attention was for his own benefit.

“Luke, are you in?”

It was Archie. “Sure, come on back.”

Archie came into Luke’s office with another man on his heels. “This is Homer Sanders. He’s a retired railroad route engineer from back east.”

Luke stood and extended his hand. “Mr. Sanders.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carson. Archie tells me you’ve been looking for me.”

Looking back at Archie, Luke shrugged. “Have I?”

Archie nodded. “You have. This is the man who planned out the second route. He lives around Fond du Lac and knows it and the area to the south quite well. That’s how he knew where the solid bedrock lay and which areas were more prone to flooding.”

“Well, then it is indeed a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sanders, but I am curious as to how we came to be in your debt. I know I didn’t hire you.”

“Oh, but you did. The man told me that Lucas Carson was extending me employment to reassess the route. He made sure I knew your name.”

“I think you’d both better sit down and explain everything.” Luke took his seat, and Archie pulled up a chair. Sanders did likewise.

“We met at one of the local taverns. I was several beers ahead of him, but we enjoyed some conversation as the beer put us at ease.” Sanders grinned. “I don’t think the poor man was used to alcohol, because when he began to mention what was needed, he had his words and goals pretty mixed up. At one point he said you wanted a route that would fail. I’m pretty sure he meant wouldn’t fail.”

“And this man, did he have a name?”