r the road must
or must not be built to my employers. I have no right to enter upon any
such discussion. Nothing will be gained. They have sent me to Poquette
to build the road. I shall keep on with the work until my first
orders are countermanded from our headquarters. And if you want them
countermanded you'll be obliged to go to headquarters. It seems to me
that ought to be pretty plain to you."

The old man, his finger still boring his palm, sat for some moments and
stared at the engineer. He tried to keep from scowling but his brows
twisted into knots in spite of himself.

"You _will_ keep on till orders are countermanded, hey?" he inquired
grimly. "Ain't you got no commonsense nor reason to you?"

"It isn't a question of that, Colonel. It's a question of obeying my
employers."

The old man gave him another thorough looking-over and then whirled on
Hackett.

"You go 'tend to something else," he ordered bluffly. And after Hackett
had closed the door on himself he again turned to his scrutiny of the
young engineer.

"I ain't no great hand to beat about the bush, young feller," he
declared. "Now look at the position you're in. You might say, you're
more than half queered already with your company. Your engine and all
that collateral has been dumped into the lake--sayin' nothin' about how
it happened. The main point is, it's there! And you're here! I ain't
makin' any threats--not as yet--but you're here, and you can't gainsay
that much. Now the idea is, with your stuff under water and you here,
how long do you think it's goin' to be before you git to work ag'in?"

Parker made no reply.

"Needn't answer any question that you can't answer," continued Ward.
"And that's one that you can't answer. You tell me you've got to build
that road. You're goin' to tell me that if you don't build it some one
else will. Mebbe they will! Mebbe they will!" His eyes grew shrewd.
"Mebbe I'll build it myself! I can say this much, that I'd rather build
it than have outsiders come in here and git a foothold. There's too big
interests in this region and owned by them that's allus lived here, my
son, to have outsiders come in now and meddle. It's the very first run
of potater bugs that you want to keep out of the garden. And the first
run can be handled easier than the settlers after they have set up
housekeeping. Now you see the point, I reckon! So the whole thing
simmers down to this: I want to discourage them city fellers. It's a