of the street and
was not remarkably commodious or clean, but its charges were less than
the Occidental's by the station, and Lister and Kemp were not
fastidious. Some time had gone since they pulled the gravel cars out of
the swamp and they had not been sent to the lake section. In
consequence, they had applied to the irrigation company for a post, and
having been called to meet the engineers and directors, imagined they
were on the short list.

Lister lounged against the rails on the Tecumseh veranda. The boards
were cracked and dirty; burned matches and cigar ends were scattered
about, and a skeleton, gauze covered door that shut with a powerful
spring kept some of the flies and mosquitoes out of the hotel.

"We'll know to-morrow," he remarked presently.

Kemp nodded. "I can't figure on our chances. Feel anxious about it?"

"Not much. In fact, I mean to use the thing to test my luck. If we're
engaged, I'll stay in Canada; if they turn us down, I'll start for the
Old Country."

"You have no particular plans, I reckon."

"No," said Lister, smiling. "I'm going to look about. I know our new
Western towns, but I want to see old cities, churches, and cathedrals;
the great jobs men made before they used concrete and steel. Then I'd
like to study art and music and see the people my father talked about.
Ours is a good country, but when it's all you know it gets monotonous."
He indicated the row of wooden houses and lonely plain. "One wants more
than the track and this."

"It's possible you may go across," said Kemp. "Looks as if the company's
short list was pretty long. There's a gang of candidates in town, we
have no pull on the directors, and I don't know if our advantages are
very marked--" He stopped and laughed, for a man came round the corner.
"Hello, Willis!" he exclaimed. "When did you arrive?"

"I came in on the last train. Got a notice to meet the Irrigation
Board."

"Oh, well," said Kemp, "since the applicants are more numerous than the
posts, I reckon another won't count. Do you expect they're going to take
you on?"

"I expect my chance is as good as yours."

"I'll sell you my chance for ten dollars," Kemp rejoined.

"Nothing doing, at the price," said Willis, and went off.

Kemp laughed. Willis was marked by a superficial smartness his comrades
sometimes found amusing and sometimes annoying. For the most part, they
bore with him good-humoredly, but did not trust him when work that
needed careful