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Updated: June 19, 2025
Somebody's sure at the bottom of all these things. That last bit of trestle didn't undermine itself, and them spikes didn't loosen just to dump the ballast train. What's the answer?" "Sheer cussedness. What would you expect from such scum?" As they passed inside, Torrance stooped to his foreman's face. "I hire a foreman to stop such things or cow the brutes." "I suggested firing Koppy to-morrow.
There were only the two of them to count on. Koppy, whose duty it was to forestall such conflicts, was nowhere in sight; and anyway Conrad had learned not to trust the Pole. Casting hasty eyes upward toward the underforeman's shack topping the promontory overlooking the camp, he fancied a dim movement in the darkness of the interior.
Conrad, returning from the trestle down the long slope to his shack, stopped and wondered, though it was dim and far away by then. Koppy and his immediate friends lifted guilty heads and questioned each other. Werner, nerves jangling, thoughtlessly pleaded the superior advantages of next Tuesday; and then bethought himself and advised more precipitous action.
Koppy dragged his away and spoke: "You three, you go to boss " Werner gave a startled exclamation. "Meeting for that," Koppy went on relentlessly. "We send you three to talk to boss " "I never was no talker, Koppy, you know that," protested Werner. But Morani continued to whet his knife with smiling unction. "You see boss," said Koppy, "and demand we boss ourselves that I boss or job stops.
And around them other shadows moved silently in the same direction. They were on their way to the big meeting of the season. Except for a mere dozen of practised ubiquity the camp was empty; for that night, which was to seal the fate of the trestle perhaps Koppy was less concerned than usual that the three up on the grade should be deceived.
Koppy knew that he was master of their very souls, that there before him five hundred men awaited his direct orders without question. Thrills tingled scalp. With fists uplifted he shrieked at them: "Now, now is the time! We are five hundred; they are two. They are ours. These oppressors, who have for years ground our faces to the dust, are trembling before us. Let us strike strike!
On his followers below he bent malignantly joyful eyes. It was only a question of time now. The next bullet must have touched Torrance's shoulder, for he winced and edged closer to the near rail. Koppy cheered and recklessly waved his rifle. A shot snapped from over the grade, and a piece of bark flicked stingingly into the Pole's face. The surprise of it almost tumbled him from his perch.
Anybody's welcome to this knob on my nut. Trouble was I was too heavily armed to fight. Ask me my private opinion and I'd say Mavy's brought his tribe down to bother us. I'm game to butt up against anything that wears boots. But them Indians don't even wear pants not what you'd notice." "Indians got-a you they wear pants, no?" leered Morani. Koppy interrupted what promised to develop into a row.
Even in their trepidation the completeness of their leader's programme over-awed them. Werner alone, driven by his fears, forgot to await the formal dismissal that was the main feature of the ritual, and started away. Koppy waved him back angrily. "One thing remember!" He glared about on them. "There's a hundred and one I'm trying to remember before I kick the bucket," murmured Werner.
But most poignantly of all he realised the hopelessness of submission, at least for the leaders. There was nothing now but to carry the fight through no other hope for himself. Also he discovered a fresh goad in his hatred of Werner. When the latter had completed his plan, Koppy suddenly dropped his hand from his face. Werner saw and collapsed.
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