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“Very hed shortly “I’d hate to have to guess howa few inches under the surface”
“A few inches Yousain
“It’s no exaggeration,” the geologist insisted “In places, it’s anywhere from a couple of feet to a couple of inches from the surface A couple of bites with a power shovel and you’d find it”
“Is that a fact?” Dyson ed it off “As you say, Leo, there isn’t much of a demand for coal these days”
“It’s a shame when it’s so plentiful,” he replied, then asked, “Is there anything else you wanted to go over with me?”
“No That’s all” Dyson continued looking through the report, barely glancing up as he disist
After Grayson had left his office, Dyson stared at the sae of the report All his life he’d been a hunch player When the rest of the country had been converging on Texas and the other Sun Belt states, he had looked north and saw the next future in the western states For a while he’d thought his hunch rong when the drilling hadn’t produced the big oil discovery he had expected
He swiveled his chair around and aimed it at Stricklin “Maybe the fortune to be had is in black diaested “What do you think?”
Stricklin gave a vague shrug as he paused to brush the nail shavings fros froo”
The gloo the world would run out of petroleum if attempts weren’t made to curtail consumption Talk had never interested Dyson ht affect the price of crude But if the supply of petroleum were reduced, it would raise the demand for coal
“I think it’s tito eastern markets, availability of railroads Present and potential users, and how et from the Appalachian coalfields”
“I’ll get right on it”
At the top of Dyson’s mental list, there was a name EJ pushed the buzzer of his intercom
“Place a call to Senator Bulfert, and let me knohen you have him on the line,” he instructed his secretary The senator wasn’t the source for his answers, but Dyson had other uses for the unscrupulous politician
“Now, Chase, you have to admit our Texas winter is an improvement on the weather you left behind,” E J Dyson chided as he passed hilass of whiskey and soda