Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 25, 2025
This cabin is no fort." "General, we can have all those railroad ties hustled here and throw up defenses," suggested the officer. "That's a good idea. But the troopers will have to carry them. That work-train won't get out here today." "It's not likely. But we can use the graders from the camp up the line... Neale, go in and get guns and a bite to eat. I'll have a horse here ready for you.
I'll be back." "You want to hurry," rejoined Campbell. "We've only a half-hour to eat an' catch the work-train." Larry strode back toward the lodging-house. And it was Campbell who led Neale into the restaurant and ordered the meal. Neale's mind was not in a whirl, nor dazed, but he did not get much further in thought than the remarkable circumstance of General Lodge sending for him personally.
Still, who else, in all that little company, could have had any motive in leaving out Weatherbee? Why had she told the story at all? She was a woman of great self-control, but also she had depths of pride. Had she, in the high tide of her anger or pique, taken this means to retaliate for the disappointment he had caused her? The approaching work-train whistled the station.
Thus isolated, unprotected groups of men, out some distance from the work-train, often were swooped down upon by Indians and massacred. The troopers had gone on with the other trains that carried Benton's inhabitants and habitations. Casey and his comrades had slow work of it going westward, as it was necessary to repair the track and at the same time to keep vigilant watch for the Sioux.
Those days it took the work-train several hours to reach the end of the rails. Neale rode by some places with a profound satisfaction in the certainty that but for him the track would not yet have been spiked there. Construction was climbing fast into the hills. He wondered when and where would be the long-looked-for meeting of the rails connecting East with West.
He stood among the troopers, pale-faced and shaking. "Casey, who's in charge of the train?" he asked, nervously. The Irishman's grin enlarged, making it necessary for him to grasp his pipe. "Shure the engineer's boss of the train an' I'm boss of the gang." More of the work-train men gathered round the group, and the engineer with his fireman approached. "You've got to hold up here," said Collins.
Wal, I'll be sayin' good-bye.... You kin expect me back some day.... To see the meetin' of the rails from east an' west an' to pack you off to my hills." Neale rode out of Roaring City on the work-train, sitting on a flat- car with a crowd of hairy-breasted, red-shirted laborers.
Next morning the trapper was ready with horses at an early hour, but, owing to the presence of Sioux in the vicinity, it was thought best to wait for the work-train and ride out on the plains under its escort. By and by the train, with its few cars and half a hundred workmen, was ready, and the trapper and his comrades rode out alongside.
"Coffee, you and Blake are to understand you're fired," said Neale. "Fired off the job and out of camp, just as you are." Fifteen days later the work-train crossed Number Ten on a trestle and the construction progressed with new impetus. Not many days later a train of different character crept slowly foot by foot over that temporary bridge.
Neale watched it leave the station, and with a swelling heart he realized that he had been placed high, that his premonition of advancement had not been without warrant. The work-train was backing into the station and would depart westward in short order. Neale hurried to his lodgings to pack his few belongings. Larry was lying on his cot, fully dressed and asleep. Neale shook him.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking