s, sir."

"He is appointed, then," said the superintendent. "Go and tell him
yourself."

XVIII

WITH THE CONSTRUCTION TRAIN

On a newly-made siding parallel to the main-line tracks, and in the center
of a rolling vista of yellow-brown prairie, stood a trampish-looking train
of weather-beaten passenger coaches and box-cars. In the sides of the
latter small windows had been cut, and from the roofs projected chimneys.
North of the train, to a din of clanking, pounding and shoveling, a throng
of men were laying ties and rails, driving spikes and tightening bolts, in
the construction of further short stretches of track.

It was the Yellow Creek branch "boarding" and construction train, and the
laying of the sidings of the newly-created Yellow Creek Junction was the
first step in the race of the Middle Western and the K. & Z., some miles
below the southern horizon, for the just-discernible break to the
southwest in the blue line of the Dog Rib Mountains--the coveted entrance
to the new gold fields in the valley beyond.

And here, the first of the construction operators sent forward, Alex had
been two days established in the "telegraph-car."

As he had anticipated, Alex was enjoying the experience hugely. It was
every bit as good as camping out, he had declared over the wire to
Jack--having for an office a table at one end of the old freight-car,
sleeping in a shelf-like bunk at the other end, and eating in the
rough-and-ready diner with the inspectors, foremen, time-keepers and
clerks who shared the telegraph-car with him. As well, the work going on
about him was a constant source of interest during Alex's spare moments.

On this, the second day, Alex had been particularly interested in the
newly-arrived track-laying machine--which did not actually lay track at
all, but by means of roller-bottomed chutes fed out a stream of rails and
ties to the men ahead of it. After supper, the wire being silent, Alex
made his way amid several trains of track-material already filling
completed sidings, for a closer view of the big machine.

There proved to be less to see than he had expected; and having climbed
aboard the pilot-car and examined the engine, Alex ascended the tower
from which a brakeman controlled the movements of the train.

On his right lay a string of flats piled high with timbers for bridges
and culverts. Glancing along them, Alex was surprised to see a man's head
cautiously emerge from an opening in th