onductor read his orders and walked to the door. "Number 17 leaving.
All aboard," he called back insolently.

"I'm stayin' here till I hear from the superintendent," answered Dave
flatly. "You leave an' you've got them cattle to look out for. They'll be
in yore care."

The conductor swaggered out and gave the signal to go. The train drew out
from the station and disappeared around a curve in the track. Five
minutes later it backed in again. The conductor was furious.

"Get aboard here, you hayseed, if you're goin' to ride with me!" he
yelled.

Dave was sitting on the platform whittling a stick. His back was
comfortably resting against a truck. Apparently he had not heard.

The conductor strode up to him and looked down at the lank boy. "Say, are
you comin' or ain't you?" he shouted, as though he had been fifty yards
away instead of four feet.

"Talkin' to me?" Dave looked up with amiable surprise. "Why, no, not if
you're in a hurry. I'm waitin' to hear from the superintendent."

"If you think any boob can come along and hold my train up till I lose
my right of way you've got another guess comin'. I ain't goin' to be
sidetracked by every train on the division."

"That's the company's business, not mine. I'm interested only in my
cattle."

The conductor had a reputation as a bully. He had intended to override
this young fellow by weight of age, authority, and personality. That he
had failed filled him with rage.

"Say, for half a cent I'd kick you into the middle of next week," he
said, between clamped teeth.

The cowpuncher's steel-blue eyes met his steadily. "Do you reckon that
would be quite safe?" he asked mildly.

That was a question the conductor had been asking himself. He did not
know. A good many cowboys carried six-shooters tucked away on their ample
persons. It was very likely this one had not set out on his long journey
without one.

"You're more obstinate than a Missouri mule," the railroad man exploded.
"I don't have to put up with you, and I won't!"

"No?"

The agent came out from the station waving two slips of paper. "Heard
from the super," he called.

One wire was addressed to Dave, the other to the conductor. Dave read:

Am instructing conductor to put you on siding and place train crew under
your orders to reload.

Beneath was the signature of the superintendent.

The conductor flushed purple as he read the orders sent by his superior.

"Well," he stormed at Dave. "What do you