er this car out, or shall I?"

Ford looked at his watch imperturbably. Now that the president was
thoroughly angry, he could afford to be cool.

"It is now five o'clock; and our end-of-track is fully one hundred and
ten miles beyond the summit of the pass. Do I understand that you wish
to take the added risk of a night run, Mr. Colbrith? If so, I'll give
the order and we'll pull out."

"I desire to go _now_!" was the irascible reply. "Is that sufficiently
explicit?"

"It is," said Ford; and he left the presence to go forward to the cab
of the waiting engine.

"You are to take the car over the mountain, Hector," he said briefly, to
the beetle-browed giant in blue denim, when he had climbed to the
foot-plate. "I'll pilot for you."

"How far?" inquired the engineer.

"Something like a hundred and ten miles."

"Holy smoke! Over a construction track--in the night?"

"It's the president's order--none of mine. Let's get a move."

The big man got down from his box and made room for Ford. "I'll be
pilin' 'em in the ditch somewhere, as sure as my name's Bill Hector," he
said. "But we'll go, all the same, if he says so. I've pulled Mr.
Colbrith before. Down with you, Jimmy Shovel, and set the switch for
us."

The fireman swung off and stood by the switch, and Hector backed his
one-car train from the siding. When he had picked up the fireman and was
ready to assault the mountain, Ford thrust a query in between.

"Hold on a minute; how is the water?" he asked.

Jimmy Shovel climbed over the coal to see, and reported less than half a
tankful.

"That settles it," said the chief to Hector. "You'll have to back down
to Saint's Rest and fill up. You'll get no more this side of Pannikin
Upper Canyon. We haven't had time to build tanks yet."

Hector put his valve-motion in the reverse gear and began to drop the
train down the grade on the air. A dozen wheel-turns brought a shrill
shriek from the air-signal whistle. Mr. Colbrith evidently wished to
know why his train was going in the wrong direction. Hector applied the
brakes and stopped in obedience to the signal.

"Do we send back?" he asked.

"No," said Ford sourly. "Let him send forward."

Penfield was the bearer of the president's question. Would it be
necessary to discharge somebody in order to have his commands obeyed?

Ford answered the petulant demand as one bears with a spoiled child.
They were returning to Saint's Rest for water. Let the president be
assu