CHAPTER XXIV.
The check "struck" MacFarlane just as the chairman had said it would, wiping out his losses by the flood with something ahead for his next undertaking.
That the verdict was a just one was apparent from the reports of both McGowan's and the Railroad Company's experts.

These showed that the McGowan mortar held but little cement, and that not of the best; that the backing of the masonry was composed of loose rubble instead of split stone, and that the collapse of his structure was not caused by the downpour, but by the caving in of culverts and spillways, which were built of materials in direct violation of the provisions of the contract.

Even then there might have been some doubt as to the outcome but for Holker Morris's testimony.

He not only sent in his report, but appeared himself, he told the Council, so as to answer any questions Mr.
McGowan or his friends might ask.

He had done this, as he said openly at the meeting, to aid his personal friend, Mr.MacFarlane, and also that he might raise his voice against the slipshod work that was being done by men who either did not know their business or purposely evaded their responsibilities.