d through complaint or report for which he was
responsible, Parker still felt that somehow there was a balance due old
Joshua Ward on their books of tacit partnership in well-doing;--such was
the honest faith, and patient self-abnegation of the good old man, who
had endured so much for others' sake.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN--THE DAY WHEN POQUETTE BURST WIDE OPEN

Through the spring and the early summer Poquette Carry was an animated
theater of action. Woodsmen, went up and woodsmen came down, and mingled
with the busy railroad crews. All examined the progress of construction
with curiosity, and passed on, uttering picturesque comment. Strange
old men came paddling down West Branch from unknown wildernesses, and
trudged their moccasined way from end to end of the line, as if to
convince themselves that Colonel Gideon Ward really had been conquered
on his own ground. Newspaper reporters came from the nearest city, and
pressed Engineer Parker to make a statement "Gentlemen," he said, with
a laugh, "not a word for print from me. I was sent here to build this
bit of a railroad quietly and unobtrusively. Circumstances have paraded
our affairs before the public in some measure. Now if you quote me, or
twist anything I may say into an interview, my employers will have good
reason to be disgusted with me, as well as with the situation here.
Furthermore, there are personal reasons why I do not wish to talk."

Whether Parker's eager appeal had effect upon the reporters, or whether
the timber barons influenced the editors, the whole affair of the sunken
engine was lightly passed over as the prank of roistering woodsmen,
and Colonel Ward was left wholly undisturbed in his retreat. Even the
calamity that had befallen him was not mentioned except by word of mouth
among the woodsmen of the region.

With self-restraint that is rare in young men, Parker still refused to
talk about the matter even in Sunkhaze. When he first returned, a
sense of chagrin at his discomfiture along with reasons that have been
mentioned kept him silent, it is true, but now, with complete victory
in his hands, he was sincerely affected by the misfortune that had
overtaken his enemy.

The "Swamp Swogon," now that it was running on its own rails and was
hauling building materials along the crooked railroad, was renicknamed
"The Stump Dodger." Parker's chief pride in the road was necessarily
based on the fact that it had been constructed without exceeding the
a