Still Jim

kes the new trail. The pack is

of the E

ng the road was at hand, for the most part, and by the end of the summer there was a broad oiled macadam road, grade carefully proportioned

st be built through solid granite a road down which mule teams could haul all the machinery for the making

strong enough to carry enormous weights. Its curves must accommodate teams of twenty mules, hauling the great length of beam and pipe

experience in handling men and a camp. Moses, showing the children of Israel the way across the de

with concrete to withstand the wash from some menacing gorge, or tilted to cling desperately to a blank wall that off

a 25 per cent. grade will do when necessary. Hustle it along, Manning. I'll be

t, so it was a crowd of wandering "rough-necks" who built the road. A few were friends of Iron Skull, who followed him from job to job. The rest were tramp workmen, men who had toiled a

the problem. Iron Skull considered it unsolvable. He had a low opinion of the rough-neck. At last he disappeared for a couple of weeks and returned wit

and a nigger. Him and I did scout service together for ten years in Geronimo's time. He's my 'blood' brother, which means we've saved each other's lives. He knows more tha

efore the Makon was finished Jim, in the long evening pipes he smoked under the stars

to Jim's tent. He was a foreman and a good one. Jim liked his voice,

" said Jim. "What

tomorrow. We ain't goi

ehind on the work. "What's the mat

you that when you try to mix colors in camp, you've got to grade their ways of living. Now I went to Mr. Wil

ude. He had had no idea, however, that it might br

e dam site over next month. I want to get the road ready for him to get down there. For six months I've tried to keep a h

ely asking his advice. Jim suddenly smiled at his evident perplexit

ying to keep men on a job I'd

g I have," said Jim

on your pay and your chance. What do you think of us boys, with nothing but wages and a kickout? Let m

ged listlessly about the tents or hung over the corral fence where the mules munched and brayed. At that moment Jim made an important

ple of billiard tables and some reading matter and set them up in a good big clu

t pay for them,"

on the Makon depends on it. And-and a friend of mine lost his life finding the dam site and he wanted to build this road. I feel as if I'm kind of d

kon Canyon. "I heard about that trip," he said. "If-if you feel that way abo

Jim. "Tell the boys the stuff w

ation. The phonograph and billiard tables arrived on time and were set up in the club tent and Jim and his camp began to do team work. The trouble with shifting labor disappeared except for the liquor

enced man would have left more to his foremen. But Jim was new to responsibility and his nervousness drove him into an intimate contact with his workmen t

the wall for further danger and risked his life in doing so. When a cloudburst sent to the bottom in a half hour a concrete viaduct that had taken a month to build, it was Jim who led the way and held the place at th

gness to work with his hands; it may have been that the men felt always the note of domination in his character and that that forced some of the cohesion. But whatever the causes, by the time

Skull left for the railway station, twenty-five miles away, to meet

d about the wall at

ll. "Shall I blast back? I d

dn't clear out in a week. W

o it now," war

Jim. And he rode away

ountain. They returned in the stage with the Director and Freet, the two saddle horses leading behind. Just about

p and Henderson di

arles Tuck Club of Makon, to tell you we hope you'd not try to go down the Canyon

n the two visitors, and sat staring stupidly

id. "What is the C

le and rode on the Direc

d billiard tables the Boss give us. If you gents don

appeared up the broad ribbon of road.

!" said the Director. "The men usual

the orator of the camp, got up and made a speech of welcome that consumed fifteen minutes of time and his entire vocabulary. It was concerned mostly with praises of Jim and his work with the men. When he had finished, the phonogr

id Henderson allow Iron Skull to lead the visitors to their tent

or it after all you'd worried over it. We fixed up three shifts. It's moonlight and, say, if we didn't push the face off that slide! Old Suma-theek, why he never let his Injuns sleep! They worked three shifts. Even at that you'

end for a minute, too moved to s

ion. I knew that wall should have been blast

n gently. "Don't let on to anyone

ended on it. And Jim, because the secret meant so much to his men, did not tell of their devotion until the Director ha

kind of carelessness

gotten together an organization with that sort of motive power would offs

necks began to

wo never grew confidential. Freet, in fact, had no confidants among the government employees, but he seemed to know a great many of the

mpleted and Jim had begun work on the ditches before he realized that there was a wh

stant menace. Not until six workmen had died at the job was the adobe finally sealed with concrete. After the adobe came sand, spring riddled. More r

uilt, many of them, including Henderson, developed unsuspected families and Jim became godfather to several namesakes. After the road was finished, however, old S

, his second summer on the dam, and they enjoyed t

first visit Uncle Denny undertook to tell Jim of how the accident had developed all the latent ugliness of Sara's character and of his heavy demands on Penelope's strength and time.

inished, Jim, white-lipped, had said hoarsely, "Uncle Denny, I c

Penelope. There was a little picture of Pen in tennis clothes at sixteen that always was pinned to Jim's tent wall. Once in a while

hat Uncle Denny told him,

body. It is as big as the hand of God. If life gets too much for you in N

i

r the note she carried it ne

and took charge of the canal building. Not until he undertook this work did he realize that there

ought to come to them first. As soon as it had become known that the Reclamation Service was to undertake the Makon project, real es

ook up land long before even the road to the dam was finished. These people waited in a pitiful

but one hundred and sixty acres. After the Project was nearing completion these Land Hogs sold parcels of their land at inflated p

l the contending forces. Hi

only by the lie of the land, it will do the greatest good to the great

ts about the actual work, but accusations of graft. "The Service was working for the rich men of the valley." "The Service had its hand behind its back." "The Service

ce and placed his canals without fear or favor. One morning in Ma

is horse and stood in the doorway, "how

garette. "Mellin, the Land Hog?" he asked. "Well, his c

s met Jim's clear gaze

l cost $5,000 more and will force half a dozen farmers to double the length of their ditch

. "I think that the canal had be

n the little sheet iron office for a moment

nsider in building a dam than the mere engineering 'best.' I must think of the tactful thing, the thin

good engineering! I do think you got soaked on some of the contract work, thoug

. "Put the canal through

to say. It was the cheapest and best site. Every farmer in the valley dressed me down about it, in p

e. "Do you want me t

ou can have my resignation wh

nd rode heavily b