f the progress made by the K. & Z.?"
inquired Construction Superintendent Finnan the following morning,
Sunday, looking into the telegraph-car.

Alex threw down his towel and stepped to the instrument table. "Yes, sir;
here's one that came late last night.

"It says they started from Red Deer yesterday morning, and made nearly
three and a half miles."

The superintendent looked somewhat glum as he read the message. "That
beats us by half a mile," he remarked. "If the news is reliable, that is.
They may plan to give out inflated distances, in order to discourage us.
That would be a small matter to them, after trying to burn us out."

"There has been no sign of Little Hawk yet, sir?" Alex inquired.

"No. I am beginning to think the rascal has gone over to the K. & Z.,"
said the superintendent, turning away. At the door he paused. "By the
way, Ward, remind me to give you a message to-morrow morning asking for
two more operators. We will have made six or seven miles by Monday night,
and will be running the train down the branch. And the temporary station
is almost completed," he added, glancing from the window toward a box-car
which had been lifted from its trucks and placed on a foundation of ties
beside the main-line tracks.

Alex promised gladly. It meant the coming of Jack Orr and Wilson
Jennings.

Following breakfast, the morning being a beautiful one, Alex determined
on a walk, and set off along the main-line to the west. Two miles distant
he struck a small bridge and a deep, dry creek-bed, and turning south
along its border, headed for the distant rail-head of the new branch.

At a bend in the creek some two hundred yards from the track-machine and
its string of flat-cars, Alex sharply paused. Two saddled ponies were
hobbled together in the creek-bottom. Casting a glance toward the
construction-train, Alex leaped into the gully, out of sight.

He had not a doubt that the horses belonged to men in the service of the
K. & Z., and that something was on foot similar to the attempted burning
of the bridge-car.

What should he do? Return the three miles to the junction? or continue on
to the track-machine? For undoubtedly the owners of the horses were
there; and the machine, he knew, was in the sole charge of an oiler.

Alex decided on the latter course, and making his way along the bed of
the stream, passed the hobbled ponies, and on to the new bridge fifty
feet in rear of the construction-train.

As he ther