The Road Builders

could leave for Sherman and Crockett and Paradise. To begin with, Dimond came riding in at dusk with a canteen of clear water which he laid on the table about which the engineers were sitting. To

find this?"

r twenty mi

ty of

says, "but he's gon

paches bot

in. There was one fellow came too near one night, and Mr. Scribner hit him, but the others carried him of

ou say that five animals were stolen while I was away. When the first roads went through, they had regular troops t

g about near the stable tent. The cook approached him, and made it awkwardly but firmly plain that he had heard a rumor to th

He mused a moment; then he looked up thoughtfully at the tall, loose-jointed, but well-set-up fig

aken aback

to put you in charge of the business, give you all the men

re a curious mixt

, spe

r guess

pend on y

get the reg

won't g

can depe

e you everything you need. Make the watches short and distribute them

for a moment at the tent entrance, Carhart's eyes took on the curious expression which the sight of the elder of the oddly assorted brothers frequently aroused there. The lamplight threw upward shadows on Old Van's face and deepened the gloom about his eyes. A moment and Carhart, sobering, stepped ins

Charlie, the cook, to organize an effective system of guards at ni

is man who had risen to be his chief, and

he said with a s

He will represent me while I am gone. It will

instead he dropped his eyes. But Carh

at the older man, but unable to conceal a certai

y slowly, without looking up, Old Van reached back to his hip pocket, drew out a revolver, laid it on the table,-laid it, oddly enough, on a copy of the Book of Common Prayer which was actin

w of creating something, which had made this ugly scene almost beautiful. That steam-leaking locomotive and that rattle-trap of a "private car," bearing the chief away into the dawn, left a sense of depression behind it. By noon of the following day, Old Van was growing noticeably morose. By mid-afternoon every man of the thousand felt the difference. Before supper ti

l Carhart never seemed to drive as he had been driving,-his work was always the same. In this frame of mind the young man, at evening, mounted a hummock to survey what had been accomplished duri

harply about, and he noted how doggedly the orders were obeyed. Then, finally, having laid out

he rounds, looking after the half-dozen sentries whom he had posted on knolls outside the wide circle of tents and wagons, making sure that there was no drinking and that his men were advised as to their duties and responsibilities. Between trips he lay back, surrounded by a number

of the stumps. Mr. Scribner says the old fellow was that excited he hollered so they could 'a' heard 'im half a mile off. 'Don't you dare cross the line of my property!' he yells. 'The first man that crosses the line of my property's a dead man!' They all stopped, Mr. Scribner says, for they didn't any of 'em feel particularly like taking in a barrel or so of buckshot. But Mr. Carhart wasn't ever very easy to stop. He just looked at the fel

it out that the fellow was lying, but he knew it was going to be hard to prove it. The old marks of the corners were all gone-there wasn't a soul living who had ever seen 'em. It was an old Spanish grant, Mr. Scribner says, and the Spanish surveyors had just blazed trees to mark the lines. Well, sir, would you believe it, Mr

"if you're working for Mr. Carhart. But s'pose y

"Mr. Vandervelt's different. He ain't

etly, but with less than the usu

rer, "if I have to have a mean old he-devil cussin' at me

and me we got pretty well acquainted." Dimond was endeavoring to conceal the slight superiority over these men of which he could not but be conscious. "It's a quee

sneer. "Dimond knows about it. He's tellin' us

ither, or in a fight, or frolicking careless with the boys. He shot a waiter in the Harper restaurant at Flemington, shot 'im right down. And then he went out into the mountains and worked for a year without ever coming near a town. And they say"-Dimond's voice lowered-"they say he shot a camp boss on the

ame preparatory to making his rounds. "I guess that's why Mr. Carhart told me to take my orders from

le as they could. And it was half-past three, or near it, when a rope was cut by a stealthy hand and half a dozen sleepy, obedient mules were led out and away. Where so many animals were stirring; and where, too, lids were perhaps drooping over hitherto watchful eye

straightforward sort of moral courage, went at once to announce his failure at guarding the camp. A

you, sir?" addre

ancing at his brother, Charlie summoning every ounce of this wonderful new sense of responsibility fo

Vandervelt," said Charlie, at len

, which he had not succeeded in sleeping off, came out in a series of red-hot phrases, which, to Young Van's, and to his own still greater surprise, Charlie took. Young Van, looking every second for a blow or even for a shot, could not see that he so much as twitched a muscle. Finally Old Van paused, not because he was

Young Van said shortly, "How did you

ust have been after three this morni

the matter w

o find out, sir. They mus

guard at t

oulk-one of th

m. He is trustw

as far as having anything to do

h if he can't keep awake a

tated. "I-I

g him

oment more and the unfortunate sentinel was being marched across to

is, Mr. V

k, he merely added, "You'll get your night's sleep after this, my friend. We want no men on guard who can't be relied on-an

competent to perform, yet, viewing them in mass, they bewildered him. There would be bickerings, sliding on from bad to worse. The work would be undertaken each day in a dogged spirit, and it would have an ugly side which had not before shown itself. Earlier in the course of the undertaking there had been moments when he had thought, looking out from his own mountain range of details, that Carhart's work was not so trying as it seemed; that he had time to ride up and down the line, chatting with engineers and foremen; that he could relax almost as he chose,-run down to Sherman now and then, or even slip off for a day's shooting. Now he saw it differently. And hi

elve. Young Van recalled, as he listened, a scene of a fortnight earlier (it seemed a year), when the boy, then new to it, had been found by Carhart, quietly sobbing on his horse. "What's the trouble, son?" the chief had inquire

aring greater significance. In the other cases Carhart himself had done all that man could do; the last time he had driven the body twenty miles to a priest and decent

ntiersman is subject to Nature's laws, and the time came when he was overcome, shortly after

and, without a word, hand

tter be carrying a gun a

k F

telegraph pole," explain

he

in c

s tan, stood before his half-dressed acting

s, is it?" said Old Van. "What

p now, sir. I only know of

quarters and see that you do no more meddling in this business. No, not a wo

merely said: "I want to know more about thi

This primitive animal sort of man was still new to him. He had neither Paul Carhart's unerring instinct, nor his experience in handling men. To him the incident seemed grave. There would be chances in plenty

altogether too hard on Charlie. I happen to know that he has been doi

rst: "You keep out of this, Gus! When I need your ad

Charlie appeared, leading with an iron grip a dissolute-lo

. "What's this? What are

ehind a pile of bones. I reckon he was trying to get awa

ck to your

e to say fo

. "I was riding in to ask for a job,

e by nig

hesitated-"not gen'al

all this talk about? I guess you kn

by that?" cried Yo

What is generally don

blanched. "Yo

him. "We don't know th

Charlie, take him off, a

ned hotly on his brother. "The worst we have any reason

that prove him

o proof of

his, Gus! Charlie,

drove Old Van beyond reason. He suddenly snatched the revolver from the

ly returned it. Old Van held it in his hand and looked at it, then at the five cartridges, where they had fallen on the ground. Then, with an expressi

, "keep this man safe unt

sir," Char

to blows with his brother, and that before the men, about the worst thing that could have taken p

the sheriff com

soon the two leaders could be distinguished. One was unmistakably Bowlegged Bill Lane. The other was a slender man, hatless, with rumpled hair, and a white handkerchief bound around

es stood damp and trembling with exhaustion. All together, the little band b

arhart, cheerily, "

g at the bandage. "Where

g Jack

hey hi

hadn't been dark, we

how

The tender of that model of 1865 locomotive they gave us went off the track, and the engine got in the same fix trying to put it on again. Whe

group of three or four prisoners,

brother?" Carh

h, back at the

er was flushing oddly. "Tell him to wait a minute for me,

d stood a moment at the entrance. His brother, se

young man, finally. "He asked

e had to say. He sat erect and energetic, apparently unconscious of the red stain on his bandage, ignoring the fact that he had as yet eaten no breakfast; and

ride back from Sherman, and I had time for

interrupt

uietly on. "Through our friend Peet, we have lost so much time that it isn't

w Peet!" sa

ogether as prettily as a well-oiled engine." He said this significantly, and paused. Of the two men before him, the younger flushed again and lowered his eyes, the elder looked

es

well business. He can do it, now that i

a day now, to make

as near as possi

. "All right, Mr. Carhart," he said. "Two

ning t

t plain to every man on the job that he meant to give an exhibition of "the fanciest track-laying ever seen in these United S

ks and sledges, and rails, and ties, and reins, and sat down to breathe before washing up for supper,-there was water for washing n

I se

every time we moved ahead a train length. My train's a little over a thousand foot long, a

. We've been getting over

Fifteen there wer

!" The young man stood a moment, t

had in his pocket. He saw that the chief was about starting off for his breakfast, and called h

enough to stir up a little trouble in t

ure we were," r

right, Gus. Her

and. "I didn't think anybody could get in last night, Mr.

is second paper a

shooting's getting bum

k F

he had tossed the paper away. "He is the sort o