aid as much. I felt very much the same way when I was your age. And
you like our prospects?... Well, you've thought things out. Neale, the
building of the U. P. will be hell!"

"General, I can see that. It sort of draws me--two ways--the wildness of
it and then to accomplish something."

"My lad, I hope you will accomplish something big without living out all
the wildness."

"You think I might lose my head?" queried Neale.

"You are excitable and quick-tempered. Do you drink?"

"Yes--a little," answered the young man. "But I don't care for liquor."

"Don't drink, Neale," said the chief, earnestly. "Of course it doesn't
matter now, for we're only a few men out here in the wilds. But when our
work is done over the divide, we must go back along the line. You know
ground has been broken and rails laid west of Omaha. The work's begun.
I hear that Omaha is a beehive. Thousands of idle men are flocking West.
The work will be military. We must have the army to protect us, and
we will hire all the soldiers who apply. But there will be hordes of
others--the dregs of the war and all the bad characters of the frontier.
They will flock to the construction camp. Millions of dollars will go
along with the building. Gold!... Where it's all coming from I have no
idea. The Government backs us with the army--that's all. But the gold
will be forthcoming. I have that faith.... And think, lad, what it will
mean in a year or two. Ten thousand soldiers in one camp out here
in these wild hills. And thousands of others--honest merchants and
dishonest merchants, whisky men, gamblers, desperadoes, bandits, and
bad women. Niggers, Greasers, Indians, all together moving from camp to
camp, where there can be no law."

"It will be great!" exclaimed Neale, with shining eyes.

"It will be terrible," muttered the elder man, gravely. Then, as he got
up and bade his young assistant good night, the somberness had returned
to his eyes and the weight to his shoulders. He did not underestimate
his responsibility nor the nature of his task, and he felt the coming of
nameless and unknown events beyond all divining.

Henney was Neale's next visitor. The old engineer appeared elated, but
for the moment he apparently forgot everything else in his solicitude
for the young man's welfare.

Presently, after he had been reassured, the smile came back to his face.

"The chief has promoted you," he said.

"What!" exclaimed Neale, starting up.

"It's a fact.