lender stems one could see
the black smoke of a thrasher streaking the prairie. The crops of the man
who employed it had escaped damage, and as those of many had been spoiled
by frost I knew he would reap a handsome profit on every bushel. I did not
grudge it him, but the contrast with our failure troubled me. My throat
was parched and dried up, for we had finished all the water they brought
us in by train, and no man could drink of the shrunken creek, which was
alkaline. It flowed down from one of those curious lakes to be found on
the Western prairie, where clouds of biting dust which smarts one's eyes
and nostrils intolerably rise up like smoke from the white crust about the
margin of the waters, whose color is a vivid greenish blue.

I stepped aside a moment to let the construction train with its load of
rails roll past, and stood leaning on the axe wiping the perspiration out
of my eyes until Harry's shout rang out warningly. Then through the
strident scream of brakes and the roar of blown-off steam an ominous
rumbling commenced round a bend; there was a rush of flying footsteps, and
Harry shouted again. I ran forward down the newly-laid track, and when I
halted breathless, my first sensation was one of thankfulness followed by
dismay. Harry was struggling to hold an excited team not far away. It was
evident that he and the rest were safe, but it was also equally plain that
we must gather our courage to meet another blow. In no circumstances could
much, if any, profit have been made on that portion of the line which
traversed the coulee, but we took it with the rest; and now the road-bed
we had painfully scooped out had been swept away and lay a chaotic mass of
debris, some sixty yards below, for, loosened by the excavation, the side
of the ravine had slipped down bodily.

"I'm glad you and the teams are safe," was all I could find to say when
Harry met me, for I struggled against an inclination to do either of two
things. One was to sit down and groan despairingly, and the other to abuse
everything on the Canadian prairie.

Harry at first said nothing. He was panting heavily, but another man
answered for him:

"I guess you might be, and only for your partner's grit the teams wouldn't
have been saved. When we saw the whole blame ravine tumbling in the only
thing that struck us was to light out quick, and we did it in a hurry, not
stopping to think. Something else struck your partner, too, a devastatin'
load of d