canvas-and-clapboard structure.
Then Neale passed from room to room, searching for Allie. Two of the
engineers were kneeling at a chink between the logs, aiming and firing
in great excitement. Campbell had sustained a slight wound and looked
white with rage and fear. Baxter was peeping from behind the rude jamb
of a window.

"Nothin' to shoot at, boy," he said, in exasperation.

"Wait. Listen to that bunch of Irish shoot. They're wasting powder."

"We've plenty of ammunition. Let 'em shoot. They may not hit any
redskins, but they'll scare 'em."

"We can hold out here--if the troopers hurry back," said Neale.

"Sure. But maybe they're hard at it, too. I've no hope this is the same
bunch of Sioux that held up the work-train."

"Neither have I. And if the troops don't get here before dark--"

Neale halted, and Baxter shook his gray head.

"That would be bad," he said. "But we've squeezed out of narrow places
before, buildin' this U. P. R."

Neale found the women in the large room, between the corner of the walls
and a huge stone fireplace. They were quiet. Allie leaped at sight of
Neale. Her hands trembled as she grasped him.

"Neale!" she whispered. "I saw Fresno!"

"Who's he?" queried Neale, blankly.

"He's one of Durade's gang."

"No!" exclaimed Neale. He drew Allie aside. "You're scared."

"I'd never forget Fresno," she replied, positively. "He was one of the
four ruffians who burned Slingerland's cabin and made off with me."

Then Neale shook with a violent start. He grasped Allie tight.

"I saw him, too. Just before I came in. I saw one of the men that
visited us at Slingerland's.... Big, hulking fellow--red, ugly face--bad
look."

"That's Fresno. He and the gang must have been camped with those graders
you brought here. Oh, I'm more afraid of Fresno's gang than of the
Indians."

"But Allie--they don't know you're here. You're safe. The troops will be
back soon, and drive these Indians away."

Allie clung to Neale, and again he felt something of the terror these
ruffians had inspired in her. He reassured her, assuming a confidence
he was far from feeling, and cautioned her to stay in that protected
corner. Then he went in the other room to his station. It angered Neale,
and alarmed him, that another peril perhaps menaced Allie. And he prayed
for the return of the troops.

The day passed swiftly, in intense watchfulness on the part of the
defenders, and in a waiting game on the part of the be