uite likely that the
crowd you want to get at won't listen. Anyway, you can try it after
they've dubbed the load off the gravel train; she's coming now."

He pointed toward a smear of smoke that trailed away across the
prairie. It grew rapidly blacker and nearer, and presently a grimy
locomotive with a long string of clattering cars behind it came down
the uneven track. It had hardly stopped when the sides of the low cars
dropped, and a plow moved forward from one to another, hurling off
masses of gravel that fell with a roar. Then the train, backing out,
came to a standstill again, and a swarm of men became busy about the
line. Dusk was falling, but the blaze of the great electric light on
the locomotive streamed along the track. While Hardie stood watching,
half a dozen men dropped their tools and walked up to his companion.

"We're through with our lot," announced one. "We're going to the Butte
and we'll trouble you for a sub of two dollars a man."

"You won't get it," said Farren shortly. "I want the ties laid on the
next load."

"Then you can send somebody else to fix them. We're doing more than we
booked for."

"You're getting paid for it."

"Shucks!" said the other contemptuously. "What we want is an evening
at the Butte; and we're going to have it! Hand over the two dollars."

"No, sir," said Farren. "I've given in once or twice and I've got no
work out of you for most two days afterward. You can quit tie-laying,
if you insist; but you'll get no money until pay-day."

One of the men pulled out his watch.

"Boys," he said, "if we stop here talking, there won't be much time
left for a jag when we make the Butte. Are you going to let him bluff
you?"

The growl from the others was ominous. They had been working long
hours at high pressure in the rain, and had suffered in temper. One of
them strode forward and grasped Farren's shoulder.

"Now," he demanded, "hand out! It's our money."

There was only one course open to Farren. His position was not an easy
one, and if he yielded, his authority would be gone.

His left arm shot out and the man went down with a crash. Then the
others closed with him and a savage struggle began.

Hardie laid hold of a man who had picked up an iron bar, and managed to
wrest it from him, but another struck him violently on the head, and he
had a very indistinct idea of what went on during the next minute or
two. There was a struggling knot of men presse