d.

"Tell you after supper," said the fellow. "They're bringing it along."

A whistle blew and Prescott followed his companions into a shed built of
railroad ties and galvanized iron. It was lighted by kerosene lamps which
diffused an unpleasant odor, and fitted with rude tables and benches; but
the meal laid out in it was bountiful and varied: pork, hard steak, fish
from the lakes, potatoes, desiccated fruits, and tea. The shovel-gang
paid six dollars a week for their board and got good value. As usual,
most of them were satisfied in fifteen minutes, for in the West the rank
and file eat with determined haste, and when they trooped out Prescott
went back with his new friends to the fire. Taking out his pipe, he made
himself as comfortable as possible on a pile of gravel and, tired with a
long day's march, looked lazily about. The strong light still blazed
along the bank where hurrying men passed through the stream of radiance,
vanished into the shadows, and appeared again. There was a continuous
rattling and clinking and roar of falling stones; rails rang as they were
moved, and now and then hoarse orders came out of the darkness.

After Prescott had asked a few leading questions, the men began to talk
of Kermode, who had already left the camp, and the rancher was able to
put together the story of his doings there.

* * * * *

The muskeg was an unusually bad one. It swallowed the rock the men dumped
in; logs, brush, and branches afforded no foundation, and a long time
elapsed before the engineers were satisfied about the base of the
embankment. The weather remained unusually hot until late in the fall,
and the contractor, already behind time and anxious to make progress
before the frost interfered with his work, developed a virulent temper.
His construction foreman drove the men mercilessly, spurring on the
laggards with scathing words and occasionally using a heavy fist when
they showed resentment. The laborers' nerves were worn raw, their
strength was exhausted; but the muskeg must be filled and, while carload
after carload of rock and gravel was hurled down, the line crept on.

Things were in this state when Kermode reached the camp and, on applying
for work, was given a shovel and made to use it in a strenuous fashion.
It appeared that he was not expert with the tool and the foreman's most
pointed remarks were generally addressed to him, but he had a humorous
manner