art, heaving over great
rocks with his bare hands. Two bohunks, unsuccessfully tussling with a
huge piece, he unceremoniously pushed aside, to grip it with his
callous hands. Slowly it tilted, balanced a moment, and bounded away
to the valley with great thuds.

"Ye mayn't be aware of it, gir-rl, but ye're expected to clap. Koppy's
showing off. I know the symptoms--but I grew whiskers then." He
combed long, toil-stained fingers through the beard.

Car after car the train moved back, the empty ones passing out over the
trestle, which Murphy pretended to study with anxiety. The engine
panted up to the end of its task.

"Well, there's Molly." The firemen thrust tousled head from the
engineer's side of the cab to catch the signals. "Billy 'Uggins may be
only an Englishman from Whitechapel, or wherever they raise the lowest
brand, but he and Molly are getting too friendly. If I weren't
frightened o' that crazy conthraption o' yeer father's I wouldn't let
him touch a lever; but till that beanpole toy is safe for a cat I'm not
going to risk the head end of any train. And here's for supper, and a
long sleep!"

He sprang into the cab with a roar at 'Uggins, tossed a kiss to Tressa,
pulled the whistle cord, and drew away with increasing speed from the
trestle and down the line to the official siding, three miles away, at
the deserted end-of-steel village.

The work was completed for the night, yet the men lingered,
self-consciously kicking over fragments of rock. Torrance and Conrad,
without seeming to notice, were aware that something was in brew; and,
wishing to meet it in the open, they did not enter the shack.

Presently Koppy and one of his bosom friends, Carl Heppel, detached
themselves from the loitering group and approached the boss.

"What you pay overtime, my men ask?"

"Overtime!" Torrance's roar rolled out over the valley. "What in h--
d'ye mean? When I want men they got to work. I don't care what hour
it is--" The depth of his fury choked him. "Get your damned bunch out
of my sight, and quick, or I'll kick you to perdition. They tore up
the rail that forced the overtime--"

Conrad had come to his side; he spoke quietly now:

"These men may be innocent. They've worked beyond the ten hours.
Time-and-a-quarter would be fair."

Torrance gaped; the world seemed to be falling from beneath his feet.

"I would add this proviso," continued the calm voice of the foreman,
"that when damage occur