out of the canyon material trains
working from both ends of the break were shoving their loaded flats
noisily up to the ballasting crews and the water was echoing the clang
of the spike mauls, the thud of tamping-irons, the clash of picks, the
splash of tumbling stone, and the ceaseless roll of shovels.

Foot by foot, length by length, the gap was shortened. Bribed by extra
pay, driven by the bosses, and stimulated by the emergency, the work of
the graders became an effort close to fury. Watches were already
consulted and wagers were being laid between rival foremen on the
moment a train should pass the point. Above the peaks the stars
glittered, and high in the sky the moon shot a path of clear light down
the river itself. The camp kettles steamed constantly, and coffee
strong enough to ballast eggs and primed with unusual cordials was
passed every hour among the hundreds along the track.

In the lower yard at Sleepy Cat the pilot train was being made ready
and the clatter of switching came into the canyon. From still further
came the barking exhaust of the first-train engine waiting for orders
for the canyon run.

Glover pacing the narrow bench below the camp returned again to the
operator's table, and in the light of the lantern wrote a message to
Medicine Bend. When it had been sent he upended an empty spike keg,
and sitting down before the fire, got his back against a rock and gave
himself to his thoughts. Men straggled back and forth, but none
disturbed him. Some, in turn, fed the fire, some rolled themselves in
their blankets and lay down to sleep, but his eyes were lost all the
while in the leaping blaze.

A volleying signal of the locomotive whistles roused him. He looked at
his watch and stepped to the verge of the ledge. Toward Sleepy Cat a
headlight was slowly rounding the first curve. The pilot train was
coming and below where he stood he could see green lights swinging.
The locomotive of the work-train was at the hind end and the
roadmasters standing on the first flat car were signalling. Mauls were
ringing at the last spikes when the head flat car moved cautiously out
on the new track. Car after car approached, every second one bearing a
flagman re-signalling to the cab as the train took the short curves of
the canyon and entering the gorge rolled slowly beneath the Cat's Paw
over the prostrate granite.

The trackmen parted only long enough to give way to the advancing cars.
The locomot