markably arduous. This, however, did not content the foreman. He
took two men away; and when those whom he left had been worked to
exhaustion, he changed them, with the exception of Kermode, who was kept
steadily at the task. As a result, he came to be looked on as leader of
the gang, and his companions took their instructions from him, which the
foreman concurred in, because it enabled him to hold Kermode responsible
for everything that went wrong.

Then the pay car arrived, and when wages were drawn, the men awaited
developments with interest; but nothing unusual occurred until a week had
passed. Kermode had had his hand crushed by a heavy stone and meant to
rest it for a day or two, but his persecutor drove him out to work. He
obeyed with suspicious meekness and toiled in the scorching sun all day;
but a few minutes before the signal to stop in the evening for which they
were eagerly waiting, the gang was ordered to run a loaded dump car to
the end of the line. The men were worn out, short in temper, and dripping
with perspiration. Kermode's hand pained him and in trying to save it he
had strained his shoulder; but he encouraged the others, and they slowly
pushed the load along, moving it a yard or two, and stopping for breath.
The men on the bank were dawdling through the last few minutes, waiting
to lay down their tools, and they offered the gang their sympathy as they
passed. Then there was a change in their attitude as the foreman strode
up the track.

"Shove!" he ordered. "Get a move on! You have to dump that rock before
you quit."

They were ready to turn on him and Kermode's eyes flashed; but he spoke
quietly to his men:

"Push!"

A few more yards were covered, the foreman walking beside the gang until
they stopped for breath.

"Get on!" he cried. "Send her along, you slobs!"

"We're pretty near the top of the grade," Kermode answered him quietly.
"We want to go easy, so as to stop her at the dumping-place."

The line, when finished, would cross the muskeg with a slight ascent; but
the bank sank as they worked at it, and the track now led downhill toward
its end. The foreman failed to remember this in his vicious mood.

"Are you going to call me down?" he roared. "Mean to teach me my job? If
this crowd's a sample of white men, give me Chinamen or niggers! Get on
before you make me sick, you slouching hogs!"

He became more insulting, using terms unbearable even in a construction
camp, but Kermode d