The Taming of Red Butte Western

e heavy-muscled, silent young draftsman had a companionable side; and an invitation to the family d

difficulty in arranging to share Benson's permanent table welcome. Though Martha Dawson never admitted it, even to her daughter, she stood in constant terror of the

alization permitted before the buffoonery of the Red Butte Western suddenly laughed itself out, and war was declared. In the interval he had come to concur very heartily in Benson's es

ing to bestow upon him. Lidgerwood saw no chance to obstruct and no good reason for obstructing. At all events, Gridley did not furnish the reason. And the first time Lidgerwood found himself sitting out the su

your brother's boss, Miss Faith?" he asked, when she had brought him a cushion fo

" she laughed. And then, with charmi

g to put her securely upon the plane of companionship. "It is pretty lonesome s

our official dignity behind you when you

n how strenuous it is, wearing the halo all the t

ley had referred to it quite frequently and had made a joke of it. Without knowing just why, she had resented Gridley's attitude;

e you seriously?" she said. "I

en are acting like a lot of foolish schoolboys bent on discouraging the new teacher. I am hoping they

icular, but which seemed to take shape of itself. The effect of setting it in speech asked for a comp

-the men, I mean," she cautioned. "I can't help feeling a

call good-natured," he rejoined evenly. "Ve

ur auth

irst; and for my autho

ipating trouble whe

ing No, as I said a moment

are not

f questioning, giving her a brave man's denial. But instead, his gaze went beyond her and he said: "You su

e told himself, comparing it with another whose outlines were bitten deeply and beyond all hope of erasure into the memory page. Yet the face warming softly in the sunset glow was sweet an

kinds of cowards," she said,

equally despicab

tain of volunteers in the Civil War, used to say that real cowardice is either a psychological con

le?" said

h the soldier who was frankly afraid of getting killed, as the other. It was his theory that the

esist the temptation t

ery much afraid of being afraid found himself morally and physically unable to do

k time

t until I had seen the same man tried under conditions tha

y do that?" he a

y is not a supreme test of anything except of itself; least of all, perhaps, is it a test of courage-I m

g something very disgraceful on the spur of the moment

its keynote from the harsh discords of the Red Desert, these little thoughtful talks with a man who was most emphatically not of the Red Desert

lt in his pockets for

Dawson," he said gravely; after which he left abru

the horse-laugh was at its height. Later, after the storm broke, there were no more quiet evenings on the cottage porch for a harassed superintendent. Lidgerwood came and we

ainly enough in his face, and Faith Dawson was sorry for him, giving him silent sympathy, unasked, if not wholly unexpected. The town talk of Angels, what little of it reached the cottage, was harsh

earching painstakingly for the leaders in the rebellion, reprimanding, suspending, and discharging until McCloskey warned him that, in a

t until we have a railroad in fact, or a forfeited charter. Do the best you can, but let it be plainly and distinctly understood tha

homely face would take on

wo-fisted talk all right; and I'm not doubting that

t, but they wanted the bare fist. They've got it now, and as I have said before, we are goin

s run, but he

matter with

st plai

solitary man in the train servi

cap and fuse in it, turned loose under foot,"

hnston, that conductor who turned in three dollars as the

said that that was all the money

n't bel

e registered a kick because the Ruby Gulch station agent wasn't out of bed in time to sell him a

inute square to the pencilled c

hen have him arrested for stealing, and wire the le

ce became the outward presentme

f dynamite turned loose," he acqu

his had come to be the stereotyped query, vocalizing itself every

t. I'm hunti

t? Who are they, and what d

ey beca

wood. You hit too quick and too hard. But tell me one thing: have

General Manager Frisbie, of

you already

I guess not. W

inner office. The green shade was pulled low over his eyes,

pearance of that switching-engine to

nt, and it was given in t

asked Li

r last week; you signed i

ood did not mean to give the inquiry the tang of an implied reproof, bu

ow my business," said Hallock, an

master's almost imperceptible nod, said, "That's

rwood sharply, when t

ing uneasily from o

know what I'm doing. I suppose I quarrelled with Hallock once a day, regular, before you came on the job, Mr. Lidgerw

said Li

York hot for a week after he found out that the P. S-W. was in control. He missed it,

point," urged Lidgerwood, always i

your shoes just now. You've got a man for your chief clerk who has kept this whole town guessing for two years. Some say he isn't all to th

aid the superintendent. "You

ck puts in his daytime scratching away at his desk out there, and you'd think he didn't know it was this year. But when that desk is shut up, you'll find him at the roundhouse, over in the freight yard, round

" said Lidger

sday night. I've been prying into this locked-up puzzle-box every wa

kes you

had crossed the yard coming out, he saw a man sneaking toward the shifter, keeping in the shadow of the coal-chutes. He was just curious enough to want t

the pencil and the blotting-

p. "How could the theft or the destruction of a locomot

orted: "I'm no 'cyclop?dia. There are lots of things I don't know. But un

can. But I can't believe that Hallock is he

certainty, Mr. Lidgerwood; the licks ar

him. And, by the way, if it comes to the wor

aster shoo

ected out of the shops, and by the railroad vote. If it

d and a dozen more of the dropped employees are threatening to get even. That means train-wrecking, misplaced switches, arson-anythin

this carefully laundered gentleman, who never missed his daily plunge and scrub, and still wore immaculate linen, lacked the confidence of his opinions and convictions?

ntly exhausted itself, he went about his business, which was to call up the telegraph operator at Timanyoni to ask

er, Timanyoni was temporarily stricken from the list of night telegraph stations pending the hastening forward of a relief operator, to take the place of the one who, wi

is desk on the pencilled blotting-pad and groped his wa

gine's number, and saw Dawson talking to Williams, the engineer, as he turned the corner at the passenger-station end of the building. Later, when he was

f the door-yard gate when a

on, past the tar-paper-covered hotel, past the flanking of saloons and the false-fronted shops, past the "Arcade" with its crimson sidewalk

et, as it appeared to Lidgerwood-and in the twinkling of an eye the night and the starry dome of it were ef

helping him to his feet, and the draftsman'

rwood asked, still d

act tone. "I happened along just in time to joggle his arm. Th

to steady himself. A chill, like a violent

eth by the supremest effort of will. "Thanks t

om the Crow's Nest. Williams saw hi

? Then he

the best of the engineers into line. But come into the house and let me give

the gate-palings for yet

ou mean the discharge

other Bart, the 'lookout' at Red-Light Sa