The Taming of Red Butte Western

oded cliffs of the Uintah Hills. The prospect, lacking vegetation, artistic atmosphere, and color, is crude and rather harshly aggressive; and to Lidge

in suspense, and speaking as one who would add a reason to unqualified refusal. "I've been looking over the ground while

owed Superintendent Leckhard's

saying, with variations, f

three hundred miles of railroad west of the Rockies. There is no system, no discipline, no respect for authority. The men run the roa

region need civilizing-need it badly. That is one of the reasons why I am

ted by main strength and a cheerful disr

the thin, intellectual face was made to appear still thinner by the pointed cut of the closely trimmed brown beard. The eyes were alert and not wanting in steadfastness; but they had a trick of seemin

had drawn him in other directions. But the temperamental qualities; the niceties, the exactness, the thoroughness, which, finding no outlet in an artistic calling, had made him a master in his unchosen profession, we

. You know why we were obliged to have them. If the Transcontinental had beaten us, it meant that our competitor would build over here

Lidgerwood; and the v

n the Street, Red Butte Western was regarded as an exploded cartridge-a kite without a tail. It was only a few weeks ago that it dawned upon our executive committee that this particular kite without a tail offered us a ready-made j

kept up with it in the

wd went back on us; and after it had passed the two-hundred mark, Adair and I were fighting it practically alone. Even President Brewster lost his nerve.

ood made the

knew, to the dotting of an 'i,' the particular brand of

he Red Desert. More than that, he asserted that the executive officer didn't live who could bring order out of the chaos into which bad management and a peculiarly tough

, Stuart; that is the w

ching-engine chasing it to begin the cutting out of the Copah locals. Over in the Red Butte yard a road-locomotive, turning on the table, swept a wide arc with the beam of its electric headlight in the graying dusk. Th

tion there were fine lines of harassment between his eyes, and

with the three hundred miles of demoralization. But the Red Butte proposition asks for more; for something tha

e wrinkled about the tired eyes

lowly; "I hadn't discovered it." Then: "You forget tha

n me at all," was

he school-house, and two of us were paddling around on a raft made of sawmill slabs. One of the two-who always had more dare-deviltry than sense under his skull thatch-was silly enough to 'rock

od shook

aid of drowning-didn't think much about it, either way, I guess. But what I say is true, also.

re," protested the one who thought he kne

I have had the symptoms all my life, Stuart. You have spoken of the schoolboy days: you may remember how you used to fight my battles for me. You thought I too

the fear of what other men might do to him, was as yet a thing unlearned, and

ceable, and it isn't especially difficult to dodge the personal collisions. I have succeeded in dodging them, for the greater part, paying the price in humiliation and self-abasement as I went along.

d the other man, moved more than he c

as you or any one, what is required of a man and a gentleman, and yet unable to answer when my name is called. I said I had been paying th

eavy eyebrows slanted

et you came a thousand miles to meet me here; and you admit

s smile was

f-respect. I can't take the plunge. I know beforehand that I can't ... which brings us down to Copah, the present exigency, and the fact that y

ad been calling himself, and not without reason, a fair judge of men. Yet here was a man whom he

ions. How do you know you wouldn't buck u

go, and to this good day I can't think calmly about it. You will unders

which Lidgerwood was looking. His voice was as sympathetic as a woman's when he said: "Go ahead and ease your m

e abandonment of the shameless in

had to drive forty miles in a stage, and there were six of us-the two women and four men. On the way the talk turned upon stage-robbings and hold-ups. With the chance of the real thing as remote as a visit from Mars, I could be an ass and a braggart. One of the men, a salesman for a powder co

said the listener at Superint

with its pop-valve open and screaming like a

or used to read about, in the early days, with a couple of Winchesters poking through the scrub pines to represent the ga

seen the

particular locality. Before anybody realized what was happening, the cripple had us lined up in a row beside the stage, and I was reaching for the stars quite

've been West often enough and long enough at a time to know the rules o

e cripple knew it. He tapped the gun bulging in my pocket and said, in good-natured contempt, 'Watch out that thing don't go off and hurt you some time when you ain't lookin',

that, and you know it," the vice-preside

g through the others. I'm quick enough when the crisis doesn't involve a fighting man's chance; and I can handle a gun, too, when the thing to be shot at isn't a human being. But

you up. When a man gets you pacified to the condition in which he can safely josh you, he has got you going and he knows it-and knows you know it. You may be

g himself not at all. "I was weighed and found w

ndemned culprit turned again to the du

the few days during which she and her mother waited at her father's mine for the coming of the Yellowstone party, sh

of the electric bulb over the desk, and the lurk

nd a chair: "You treat it as an incident closed, Howard.

a year ago last spring.

changes are impending. They are looking for trouble, and are quite ready to help make it. If you could discharge them in a body, you couldn't replace them-the Red Desert having nothing to offer as a dwelling-place for civilized men; and this they know, too. How

The noisy switching-engine had gone clattering and shrieking down the yard again before he said, "You mean t

It was optional with you before; it's a

is head down and his hands in the pockets of the correct coat. In

be plenty of trouble, and I shall probably show the yellow streak-for the last time, perhaps.

calmly, "maybe you need a little killin

ame into Lidg

be I

pervened. Then Ford

an idea of what you'll find at Angels in the way of a head-quar

s raucous clamor to the drumming thunder of the incoming train from Green Butte, whe

er. Under him, in the head-quarters staff at Angels, there was an auditor-who also acted as paymaster, a general freight and passenger agent, and a superintendent of motive power. Operating the line as a branch of the P. S-W System, we can simplify the organization. We have consolidated the auditing and traffic departm

telegraph, train-service, and engineering; but ho

h he had been sharpening a pencil, with a

should come to blows between you, you couldn't fire him. In the regular routine he will report to the Colorado-lines superintendent of

t?" inquire

mily influence, and he'll hold it in the same way. But you are not likely to have any trouble with him. He is a brute i

said the new superintendent. "An

lace on the pay-roll. Naturally he thought he ought to be considered when we climbed into the saddle, and he has already written to President Brewster, asking for the promotion in fact. He happens to be a New Yorker-like Gridley; and, again like Gridley, he has a friend at court. Mag

d get dinner? Afterward you can give me your notion in the large about the future extension of the road across the second Timanyoni, and I'll order out the service-car

was chalked up on the Red Butte Western roundhouse bulletin-board to go west at

on the circle of R.B.W. engineers, firemen, and roundhouse roustabouts lounging on the benches in the t

oss, Ay vant to tal yo

on sourly while the engine-despatcher chalked his nam

aller bane goin' 'round hare dees two, t'ree days, lu

eet-two, and flung his hands upward in a ges

-Cuffs, by G