al, and
Victoria, there are others to whom your thanks are due--the men who stayed
right there with their contracts in spite of fire and snow, staking dollar
after dollar on a terribly risky game. There were considerable of them,
but most of you know this one--I'm sharing my laurels with him--" and as a
thunder of applause which followed the halt he made died away he turned
toward me. "Stand right up, Contractor Lorimer--they're shouting for
you."

There was further clamor, but I scarcely heard it, and I longed that the
floor of the hall might open beneath me. Still, there was clearly no
escape, and I stood up under the lamplight, noticing, as one often notices
trifles at such times, how like a navvy's my right hand was as it trembled
a little on the white tablecloth. A sea of faces were turned toward me
expectantly, and I pitied their owners' disappointment, but I saw only
four persons plainly--my uncle, and Alice, who flashed an encouraging
glance at me, Colonel Carrington looking up with a semi-ironical smile,
and Grace. I could not tell what her expression meant.

I should sooner have faced a forest fire than that assembly, but at least
my remarks were brief, and I felt on firmer ground when memories of the
rock-barred track and the lonely camps rose up before me, and there was a
shout at the lame conclusion, "We gave our bond and we tried to keep it,
as the rest did too. We were poor men, all of us, and we are poor men
still; but every one owes something to the land that gives him bread. So
we tried to pay back a little, and perhaps we failed; but at least the
road is made, and we look forward hoping that a full tide of prosperity
will flow into this country along the rails we laid."

The applause swelled and deepened when Harry Lorraine stood up,
silver-tongued, graceful, smiling, and called forth roars of laughter by
his happy wit; and when he had finished Martin Lorimer, who was red in the
face, stretched his arm across the table toward me, and held up a goblet,
saying: "For the honor of the old country! Well done, both of you!"

"The fun is nearly over. We can talk business," said the gray-haired man
from Winnipeg, on my right side. "I may say that we are satisfied with the
way you have served us, and, though a bargain is a bargain, we don't wish
to take an unfair advantage of any one; so the surveyor will meet you over
the extras. He is waiting with the schedule, and by his advice we're open
to let you this