ot this morning."

"Maybe so," Atkinson admitted. "Seems so--and yet I ain't easy in my
mind. The men don't act right; they behave as if they're just waiting;
they're restless and not a man could I get to open his mouth about
where they found the stuff. If there wasn't to be any more, they would
have told and tried to kid me. They appear to me as if just biding
their time. Some men weren't gone, of course, those who don't drink.
They stayed in the bunk-house and they know nothing."

"We'll go on the supposition then that there will be more coming, and
act accordingly," Weir stated, at once. "Watch them close, and put up
a warning that men who are not at work in the morning, or who bring
booze into camp, will be fired."

"That's the trouble," the superintendent declared. "I don't think they
brought a drop in except in their skins. And as we say, they weren't
drunk. There's not a thing we can object to and they know it; somebody
has put 'em wise how to act. Here they are, sober this morning,
behaving themselves, and so on. We can't keep men from going for a
walk if they want to; we can't string barb-wire around the camp and
hold them in; we can't even say they can't touch a bottle if a
stranger offers them one when they're on the outside."

"But we can hold up the consequences if they go on a spree," Steele
replied. "Most of them are satisfied with the work and pay and grub;
they don't want to go."

"No, but they like whiskey too, free whiskey in particular. They would
say they're not getting drunk--no man ever really expects to when he
starts drinking--and talk about their 'rights.' There are two or three
fellows in camp now who are doing a lot of mouthing about labor's
rights; I. W. W.'s, I'd say. Shouldn't be surprised if they were the
ring-leaders."

"If more whiskey comes, we must beat them to it."

"That's my notion," Atkinson said, with a nod. "I didn't locate the
booze fountain last night, but I did this morning. Took a horse at
daylight and rode along the hills; about a mile south in some trees at
the foot of the mountain, I came across a case of empty bottles and a
keg half-full of water. That was all, but it showed where the
'birthday party' was."

"That's the place to watch, then. Better send a trusty man there to
report to us immediately if he sees signs of a supply arriving for
to-night. Half a dozen of us with axes will soon start a temperance
wave in that locality."

In accordance with this ins