led and strode back toward the front car of the
train. All the crowd,--to a man, muttering and gaping, followed him.
Casey climbed up on the gravel-car.

"Casey, wot in hell would yez be afther doin'?" demanded McDermott.

Casey grinned at his old comrade. "Mac, yez do me a favor. Uncouple the
car."

McDermott stepped between the cars and the rattle and clank of iron told
that he had complied with Casey's request. Collins, with all the men on
the ground, grasped Casey's idea.

"By God! Casey can you do it? There's down-grade for twenty miles. Once
start this gravel-car and she'll go clear to the hills. But--but--"

"Collins, it'll be aisy. I'll slip through thot pass loike oil. Thim
Sooz won't be watchin' this way. There's a curve. They won't hear till
too late. An' shure they don't niver obsthruct a track till the last
minute."

"But, Casey, once through the pass you can't control that gravel-car.
The brakes won't hold. You'll run square into the general's train--wreck
it!"

"Naw! I've got a couple of ties, an' if thot wreck threatens I'll heave
a tie off on the track an' derail me private car."

"Casey, it's sure death!" exclaimed Collins. His voice and the pallor of
his face and the beads of sweat all proclaimed him new to the U. P. R.

"Me boy, nothin's shure whin yez are drillin' with the Paddies."

Casey was above surprise and beyond disdain. He was a huge,
toil-hardened, sun-reddened, hard-drinking soldier of the railroad, a
loquacious Irishman whose fixed grin denied him any gravity, a
foreman of his gang. His chief delight was to outdo his bosom comrade,
McDermott. He did not realize that he represented an unconquerable and
unquenchable spirit. Neither did his comrade know. But under Casey's
grin shone something simple, radiant, hard as steel.

"Put yer shoulders ag'in' an' shove me off," he ordered.

Like automatons the silent laborers started the car.

"Drill, ye terriers, drill! Drill, ye terriers, drill!" sang Casey, as
he stood at the wheel-brake.

The car gathered momentum. McDermott was the last to let go.

"Good luck to yez!" he shouted, hoarsely.

"Mac, tell thim yez saw me!" called Casey. Then he waved his hand in
good-by to the crowd. Their response was a short, ringing yell. They
watched the car glide slowly out of sight.

For a few moments Casey was more concerned with the fact that a breeze
had blown out his pipe than with anything else. Skilful as years had
made him, he found