for the slain man,
stranger though he was, was Mexican; and finally, he knew not what
distilled poison of lies concerning his innocence in the night fray.
Nothing more was needed to reveal the swelling hate which secret fear
of Weir but increased than a volley of curses and abuse hurled at his
head from a native saloon doorway as he passed in his car on his way
home.

During the following week the engineer was too occupied with dam work
to have time for other matters. He pushed the concrete construction
and inspired his men with something of his own indomitable spirit, who
had learned of the cowardly attack in San Mateo and rallied to his
standard with a zeal and ardor for which the fact of employment alone
did not account. He had become a leader as well as their "boss." From
Meyers down to the humblest workman the camp had for him a new
admiration, a new respect and a new loyalty, which he could not help
but feel; he had proved that he could deliver the "goods"; and if the
Mexicans wanted war, the Americans here would be glad to oblige them.
Nor did they wait to let San Mateo know the fact.

"We're wid 'Cold Steel' Weir, our boss, four hundred of us, till ye
can skate on hell," a huge Irishman, one of half a dozen standing at
Vorse's bar on Saturday night, remarked when the saloon-man uttered a
sneer at the manager. "Say that agin and we'll tear your rotten booze
joint to pieces and make ye eat it! And if another stinkin' greaser
tries to wing him from the dark, we'll come down here and wipe your
dirty little town off the map! That goes both ways from the jack!" He
snapped his fingers under the other's nose by way of added insult.

A petty series of hostile acts against the company developed.
Teamsters were stoned by boys, which left them raging and murderous to
discover the men who set them on. Half a carload of cement in sacks
was ripped open and emptied on the earth at Bowenville. After Meyers,
Weir's assistant, found his automobile tires slashed to bits on coming
out of the post-office in San Mateo, it became necessary always to go
in pairs, one man to remain on watch. Weir himself just avoided a
serious accident one evening at dusk while a mile from the dam when he
instinctively ducked in his car as something grazed the top of his
wind-shield. A wire had been stretched across the road from a
telephone pole to a tree, at just the height to strike him at the
throat.

He halted and removed the deadly contrivance