man with twinkling and appreciative eyes.

"Parker," he said, "once in a while there comes up in the railroad
business a demand for a man who has brains and spunk and muscle all
rolled up in one bundle. I haven't tested you out yet on the first named
but the chief engineer speaks in your behalf. The last two you certainly
have. There's the story of a man who was going home late at night and
picked up what he thought was a kitten and found it to be a pole-cat. It
was good judgment to set it down again mighty sudden. But the skin was
worth something and he resolved to have the skin to pay for the damage.
Now President Whittaker and myself have been up in the north woods this
season--among the big game, you understand. We picked up what we thought
was a kitten. It has turned out to be something else. But we are not
going to drop it."

The young engineer was looking at him with puzzled gaze.

"You don't understand a bit of it, do you?" laughed the traffic manager.
"Well, I can't explain the thing just yet. I'll simply leave it this way
today: Do you want to take a pole-cat and skin it for us? I don't
mean by that that it's a job that any enterprising young man should be
ashamed or afraid of. It's a job in your line. It's something of close
personal interest to the president of this system and myself. It is
going to take you away into the big woods. Do you want it--yes or no?"

The engineer hesitated only a moment.

"I'll take it," he said simply.

"That's the boy!" cried Jerrard. His tone was so enthusiastic that
Parker's instinct told him that this bluff offer was another test of his
readiness in an emergency and had succeeded.

The manager put his hand against his shoulder and gently pushed him out
of the office.

"Get ready for a cold winter out of doors and practice your tongue on
the names To-quette Carry' and 'Colonel Gideon Ward' until you are not
afraid of the sound of them."

With a chuckle he shut the door on the astonished young man, but opened
it again before Parker had moved from the mat outside.

"Don't be worried, my boy, because I cannot explain the whole situation
today." There was kindly reassurance in his tones. "You'll make out all
right, I'm sure of that." A queer little smile puckered the corners of
his eyes and his voice again became teasing. "The idea is, you've taken
a contract to do up the Gideonites of the Wilderness in a lone-handed
job. But I think you're good for the trick." He shut