noon
`` But why did Tandy want that county line provision put into the bond subscription ? '' `` Look at the map again . Those two counties lie west of the point at which the road must be turned south if it is to be diverted to Paducah . If we fail to build across that county line by noon of the fifteenth of next March , the subscriptions of both those counties will be forfeited . Then Tandy will step in and offer the company that is building the line a much larger subscription of some sort from Paducah and from his Memphis road , as an inducement to shorten the line by taking it to Paducah instead of Cairo . '' `` That would ruin Cairo ? '' the girl asked , anxiously .