have to go out of
business for the present."

"Oh, you did?" said Ford. "Of course he was quite willing to oblige you?
How much time did he give you to get out of pistol range?"

[Illustration: "Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend, Mr.
Richard Frisbie"]

Frisbie actually blushed--in deference to the lady.

"Why--er--it was the other way round. He double-quicked a little
side-trip down the gulch while I knocked in the heads of his whisky
barrels and wrecked his bar with a striking hammer I had brought along."

For the first time in the interview the chief's frown melted and he
laughed approvingly.

"Miss Adair, you must let me introduce my friend and first assistant,
Mr. Richard Frisbie. He is vastly more picturesque than anything else we
have to show you at this end of the Pacific Southwestern. Dick--Miss
Alicia Adair, President Colbrith's niece."

Frisbie took off his hat, and Miss Alicia gave him her most gracious
smile.

"Please go on," she said. "I'm immensely interested. What became of Mr.
Garcia afterward?"

"I don't know that," said Frisbie ingenuously. "Only, I guess I shall
find out when I go back. He is likely to be a little irritated, I'm
afraid. But there are compensations, even in Pete: like most Mexicans,
he can neither tell the truth nor shoot straight." Then again to Ford:
"What is to be done about the Riley mix-up?"

"Oh, the same old thing. Go down and tell the Italians that the company
will stand between them and the MacMorroghs, and they shall have
justice--provided always that every man of them is back on the job again
to-morrow morning. Who is Riley's interpreter now?"

"Lanciotto."

"Well, look out for him: he is getting a side-cut from the MacMorroghs
and is likely to translate you crooked, if it suits his purposes. Check
him by having our man Luigi present when he does the talking act. Any
word from Major Benson?"

"He was at the tie-camp on Ute Creek, yesterday. Jack Benson and Brissac
are lining the grade for the steel on M'Grath's section, and the bridge
men are well up to the last crossing of Horse Creek."

"That's encouraging. How about the grade work on the detour--your new
line into Copah?"

It was the assistant's turn to frown, but the brow-wrinkling was of
puzzlement.

"There's something a bit curious about that--you don't mind our talking
shop like a pair of floor-walkers, do you, Miss Adair? You know we
expected the MacMorroghs would kick on the chan